FIRST   THINGS    FIRST 


I  HAVE  a  life  with  Christ  to  live, 
But,  ere  I  live  it,  must  I  wait 
Till  learning  can  clear  answer  give 
Of  this  and  that  book's  date  ? 

1  have  a  life  in  Christ  to  live, 
I  have  a  death  in  Christ  to  die ; 
And  must  I  wait  till  science  give 
All  doubts  a  full  reply  ? 

Nay,  rather,  while  the  sea  of  doubt 
Is  raging  wildly  round  about, 
Questioning  of  Hfe  and  death  and  sin, 

Let  me  but  creep  within  • 
Thy  fold,  O  Christ,  and  at  thy  feet 

Take  but  the  lowest  seat, 
And  hear  Thine  awful  voice  repeat, 
In  gentlest  accents,  heavenly  sweet : 

"  Come  unto  Me,  and  rest ; 

Believe  Me,  and  be  blest," 

J.  C.  Shairp. 


FIRST  THINGS  FIRST 


Ht)£)re60e6  to  l^oung  flDen 


BY  THE 

REV.  GEORGE  JACKSON,   B.A. 


New  York  :  46  East  Fourteenth  Street 

THOMAS  Y.   CROWELL  &  COMPANY 

Boston :   100  Purchase  Street 


^y]\ovTe  8k  ra   X'^pKTixara  ra  jxe 


a   aettova.—  l  COR.  xii.  31 


TO 

MY  MOTHER 


INTRODUCTORY    NOTE 

The  sermons  contained  in  this  volume  have  all 
been  preached  in  the  course  of  the  writer's  ordin- 
ary ministry,  and,  with  one  or  two  exceptions, 
during  the  last  twelve  months.  They  have  been 
re-written  from  the  original  notes,  but  both  in 
form  and  substance  they  remain  practically  the 
same  as  when  first  delivered. 

In  making  this  selection  for  the  press,  the  aim 
of  the  writer  has  been  to  illustrate  and  emphasize 
the  truth  suggested  by  the  title  of  the  book.  If 
he  has  succeeded  in  this,  he  will  be  the  more 
readily  pardoned  the  occasional  repetition  of  ideas, 
which  is  the  almost  inevitable  consequence. 

How  much,  and  to  how  many,  he  is  indebted, 
probably  no  busy  preacher  can  tell  ;  certainly  the 
writer  cannot.  He  has  gleaned  in  many  fields 
and  always  with  one  end  in  view.  Some  acknow- 
ledgment of  his  many  obligations   he   has  sought 


viii  First  Things  First 


to  make  in  the  footnotes  attached  to  these  pages  ; 
and  with  this  he  must  be  content. 

The  address  entitled  "  The  Unanswerable  Argu- 
ment for  Christianity "  is  reprinted  from  the 
Wesley  an  MetJiodist  Magazine  (January  1894),  by 
kind  permission  of  Rev.  C.  H.  Kelly.  With  this 
exception  all  the  addresses  appear  now  for  the 
first  time. 

Edinburgh,  19///  September  1894. 


CONTENTS 

^  PAGE 

"  Self-Revere.nxe,  Self-Knowledge,  Self-Control"  .         i 

I  dorintljians  vi.  19. 

"  Know  ye  not  that  your  body  is  a  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost  7''^ 

ILuke  V.  8. 

' '  Simon  Peter  fell  doivn  at  Jesus'  knees,  saying,  Depart  fro?n 
me  ;  for  I  am  a  sinful  man,  O  Lord.^* 

I  ffIorintf)ian«i  ix.  27. 
'  /  bzcffet  my  body,  and  bring  it  into  bondage. " 

i^ontans  vi.  13. 
**  Yield  yourselves  unto  God.^^ 

II 

How  Jesus  dealt  WITH  Inquirers 15 

III 

What  IS  IT  TO  BE  A  Christian  ? 31 

©alatiaitiS  ii.  20. 

"  That  life  which  I  now  live  in  the  flesh  I  live  in  faith,  the 
faith  -luhich  is  in  the  Son  of  God,  zvho  loved  me,  and  gave 
Himself  up  for  me.'''' 

IV 

Why  OUGHT  I  to  be  a  Christian  ? 47 

JLuke  V.  27. 
''Follow  Me.'''' 


First  Things  First 


V  PAGE 

Mr.  Get-i'-the-Hundred-and-Lose-i'-the-vSiiire.   .        .      63 

Genesis  xiii.  11. 

*•  So  Lot  chose  him  all  the  Plain  of  Jordan.*^ 

©mrsis  xxv.  33. 

*•  And  ^sau  sold  his  birthright  tinto  Jacob.'** 

VI 

The  Manliness  of  Christ 79 

%z{%  iv.  13. 

'■^  And  wheti  they  beheld  the  boldness  of  Petet   and  John  .  .   . 
they  took  knowledge  of  them,  that  they  had  been  withjestis." 

VII 
Temptation 97 

©diesis  iii.  1-5. 
'''■  Noxv  the  serpent  xvas  more  subtil  than  any  beast  of  the  field 
which  the  Lord  God  had  made.  And  he  said  unto  the 
woman,  Yea,  hath  God  said.  Ye  shall  not  eat  of  atty  tree  of 
the  garden  ?  Aitd  the  woman  said  mito  the  serpent,  Of  the 
fruit  of  the  trees  of  the  garden  we  may  eat :  but  of  the  fruit 
of  the  tree  which  is  in  the  7?iidst  of  the  garde7i,  God  hath 
said.  Ye  shall  not  eat  of  it,  neither  shall  ye  touch  it,  lest  ye 
die.  And  the  serpent  said  unto  the  woman,  Ye  shall  not 
stcrely  die :  for  God  doth  know  that  in  the  day  ye  eat  thereof, 
then  your  eyes  shall  be  opened,  and  ye  shall  be  as  God,  hww- 
ing  good  and  evil. " 

VIII 

How  the  Prize  was  won  at  an  old  Athletic  Festival     113 

I  CTorintijtans  ix.  24-27. 

*^  Knozu  ye  not  that  they  which  run  in  a  race  run  all,  but 

one  receiveth  the  prize?     Even  so  run,  that  ye  uiay  attain. 

And  every  man  that  striveth  in  the  games  is  tetnperate  in  all 

thijigs.     Now  they  do  it  to  receive  a  corruptible  crown  ;  but 

we  an  incorruptible.     L therefore  so  rtin,  as  ?tot  uncertaijily  ; 

so  fight  I,  as  not  beating  the  air :  but  I  buffet  my  body,  and 

b?'ing  it  into  bondage :  lest  by  any  jueans,  after  that  L  have 

preached  to  others,  I  fnyself  should  be  rejected.^' 


Contents  xi 


TV 

■^■^  PACK 

The  Problem  of  Problems— Myself        ....     127 

X 

Enthusiasm 145 

^cts!  i.  13. 
^^ Simon  the  Zealot.'''' 

XI 

The  Unanswerable  Argument  for  Christianity  .        .     159 

^cts  iii.  2. 

"  And  a  certain  fuan  that  was  laf?ie  from  his  mother^ s  womb 
was  carried,  ivhom  they  laid  daily  at  the  door  of  the  temple 
which  is  called  Beautiful,  to  ask  alms  of  them  that  entered 
into  the  temple" 

^Cts  iv.  14. 

**  And  seeing  the  vian  which  was  healed  standing  with  ihem^ 
they  could  say  nothing  against  it." 

XII 

The  Nameless  Prophet  :  A  Study  in  Conscience  .        .     173 


*'  And,  behold,  there  came  a  man  of  God  out  of  fiidah  by  the 
word  of  the  Lo}-d  unto  Beth-el." 


XIII 
Modern  Idolatry igo 

I  3o\)Xi  V.  21. 
"  Little  children,  guard  yourselves  from  idols." 


xii  First  Things  First 


XIV 

A  Young  Man's  Difficulties  with  his  Bible         .        .    205 


XV 

The  Worship  OF  THE  Highest 221 

©cutcronontp  xii.  13,  14. 

"  Take  heed  to  thyself  that  thou  offer  not  thy  burnt  offerings 
in  every  place  that  thou  seest :  hut  in  the  place  zvhich  the 
Lord  shall  choose  in  one  of  thy  tribes,  there  thou  shall  offer 
thy  burnt  offerings,  and  there  thou  shall  do  all  that  I  com- 
mand thee. ^'' 

XVI 

A  Saved  Soul  and  a  Lost  Life 235 

ILtilte  xxiii.  42,  43. 

^^  And  he  said,  Jesus,  remember  me  lohen  Thou  comest  in  Thy 
kingdom.  And  He  said  unto  him.  Verily  I  say  tin  to  thee. 
To-day  shall  thou  be  with  Me  in  Paradise. " 


SELF-REVERENCE,  SELF-KNOWLEDGE, 
SELF-CONTROL" 


'■''  Know  ye  not  that  yoiw  body  is  a  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost?'''' 
—  I  Cor.  vi.  19. 

'■'■  Simon  Peter  fell  down  at  Jesus''  knees,  saying,  Depart  from 
me  ;  for  I  am  a  sinful  man,  O  Lo7'd" — Luke  v.  8. 

^^  I  buffet  my  body,  and  bring  it  into  bondage.'''' — I  CoR.  ix.  27. 

**  Yield  yourselves  unto  God.'''' — RoM.  vi.  13. 


1 


"  SELF-REVERENCE,  SELF-KNOWLEDGE, 
SELF-CONTROL" 

"  T^  NOW  ye  not  that  your  body  is  a  temple  of 
a\^  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  " — that  is  self-reverence. 
"  Simon  Peter  fell  down  at  Jesus'  knees,  saying, 
Depart  from  me  ;  for  I  am  a  sinful  man,  O  Lord  " 
— that  is  self-knowledge.  "  I  buffet  my  body, 
and  bring  it  into  bondage" — that  is  self-control. 
"  Self-reverence,  self-knowledge,  self-control  ;  these 
three  alone,"  says  Tennyson,  "  lead  life  to  sovereign 
power."  But  is  it  so  ?  "  These  three  alone  " — are 
these  the  only  saviours  that  man  needs  ?  Nay, 
verily  ;  even  this  threefold  cord,  strong  as  it  is, 
will  snap  if  you  do  not  weave  into  its  twisted 
strands  another  and  a  stronger.  Hence  my  fourth 
text :  "  Yield  yourselves  unto  God."  It  is  not 
enough  that  life  be  self-controlled  ;  it  must  be 
Christ-controlled.  "  Self-reverence,  self-knowledge, 
self-control  " — we  need  them  all  ;  not  one  ally  can 
be  spared  in  the  deadly  war  of  Sense  with  Soul  ; 


First  Thin  OS  First 


but    our    life    will    never    reach    that 

power"  of  which  the  poet  sings,  till  in  the  midst 

of  the  throne  Christ  sits  as  king. 

Let  us  consider  these  three  virtues,  therefore, 
and  see  how  they  stand  related  to  Jesus  Christ. 
And  for  convenience'  sake  I  begin  with — 

I.  S elf -knozvl edge. — "  Know  thyself,"  said  the 
ancient  Greek  oracle  ;  and  if,  as  Pope  has  told  u^, 
"  the  proper  study  of  mankind  is  man,"  then  each 
man  should  begin  with  himself. 

Is  it  altogether  superfluous  to  urge  the  import- 
ance of  a  knowledge  of  one's  physical  self? 
Despite  all  that  the  schoolmaster  and  the  popular 
scientific  and  health  lecturer  have  done,  the 
amount  of  mischief  which  is  directly  traceable  to 
ignorance — and  which  is  therefore  preventible — 
can  hardly  be  over-estimated.  I  am  not  of  those 
who  claim  for  physical  science  the  first  place  in 
our  studies ;  yet  surely  prudence  and  common 
sense  urge  the  importance  of  at  least  an  element- 
ary knowledge  of  the  laws  of  our  physical  well- 
being.  How  is  the  human  machine  to  be  kept  in 
proper  working  order  if  we  who  have,  so  to  speak, 
the  "  tending "  of  it  are  wholly  ignorant  of  its 
construction  ?  The  worst  ills  of  life  spring  from 
causes  deeper  than  ignorance  ;  they  lie  beyond 
the  reach  of  the  schoolmaster ;  nevertheless,  let 
him  do  his  perfect  work,  and  society  will  soon 
be  a  different  thing  from  what  we  see  it  to- 
day. 

There  is  another   side  to   this  subject,  which, 


Self- Know  ledge 


though  it  belongs  to  those  who  are  fathers  and 
mothers  rather  than  to  the  young  men  to  whom 
these  words  are  specially  addressed,  I  cannot  pass 
over  in  silence.  I  wish  I  dare  say  all  that  it  is  in 
my  heart  to  say,  all  that  ought  to  be  said,  and  to 
be  said,  too,  in  the  plainest  possible  speech  ;  yes, 
and  that  would  be  said,  if  it  were  not  that  we  are 
smothered  by  false  conventionalities.  But  I 
deliberately  charge  it  against  you  fathers  and 
mothers  that  you  are  sending  your  sons  and 
daughters  out  into  the  world  in  utter  ignorance  of 
what  it  is  your  solemn  and  bounden  duty  to  speak 
to  them  of.  I  know  what  seals  your  lips  ;  it  is  a 
feeling  of  modesty,  of  delicacy  ;  and  besides,  will 
they  not  find  out  these  things  soon  enough  for 
themselves  ?  It  is  modesty  false  as  it  is  cruel. 
"  Find  out  for  themselves "  ?  Yes,  indeed  they 
will  ;  and  the  devil  himself  mayhap  will  be  their 
teacher,  and  the  truth  never  learnt  from  the  lips 
of  love  will  enter  by  the  door  of  sin  and  shame. 
That  is  the  sad  dumb  tragedy  of  many  a  home  ; 
that  is  why  the  lines  have  come  so  soon  in  the 
mother's  face,  and  the  father's  back  is  bowed  while 
he  is  yet  young. 

But  this  is  only  one  form  of  self-knowledge. 
Man  possesses  a  moral  as  well  as  a  physical  self. 
If  ignorance  there  means  disaster,  not  less  so  does 
it  here.  There  is  a  famous  picture  by  a  German 
artist  ^  which  represents  Satan  playing  a  game  of 
chess  with  man  for  his  soul.  We  are  all  playing 
1  Retzsch. 


First  Things  First 


that  game  ;  if  we  do  not  know  the  rules  of  the 
game  we  shall  be  checkmated  speedily  and  without 
pity.  "  Know  thyself"  ;  keep  a  strict  watch  upon 
yourself ;  make  a  study  of  yourself  Learn  what 
are  the  forces  at  your  command  ;  know  where  you 
are  weak  and  where  you  are  strong.  The  general 
who  goes  into  battle  ignorant  of  the  army  at  his 
back  does  but  court  defeat.  Remember  we  are 
engaged  in  a  warfare  from  which  there  is  no  escape. 
The  adversary  before  us  is  as  pitiless  as  he  is 
powerful.  It  will  need  all  our  wit  and  resource 
if  we  are  not  to  be  left  beaten  upon  the  battle- 
field ;  and  one  of  the  first  conditions  of  successful 
conflict  is  a  true  self-knowledge. 

Now  the  truest  and  highest  self-knowledge  is 
only  to  be  learned  from  Jesus  Christ.  Do  not 
say  that  is  a  merely  arbitrary  statement  ;  it  can 
justify  itself  at  the  bar  of  reason.  For  consider, 
how  is  a  man  to  know  himself  intellectually  ? 
Can  he  do  so  if  he  company  all  his  days  with 
country  yokels  ?  If  he  would  learn  the  cubits  of 
his  mental  stature  must  he  not  measure  himself, 
not  with  those  who  are,  intellectually,  his  inferiors, 
not  even  with  his  equals,  but  with  the  intellectual 
giants  of  our  race  ?  Only  so  will  he  learn  the 
truth  about  himself  Not  otherwise  is  it  in  the 
moral  and  spiritual  world.  We  must  come  into 
the  presence  of  the  Ideal  Man  and  judge  ourselves 
by  Him.  In  the  Tower  of  London  are  kept  the 
standard  weights  and  measures  by  which  the 
pound-weight  and  the  yard-stick  of  every  village 


Self- Reverence 


shopkeeper  must  be  tested.  That  is  what  Christ 
is  for  us  in  the  world  of  moral  life.  Look  at 
Simon  Peter  in  the  presence  of  Jesus.  What 
Peter's  estimate  of  himself  had  been  before  that 
day  I  do  not  know  ;  complacent  enough  in  all 
probability.  But  when  in  the  little  fishing  coble 
there  flashed  into  his  soul  one  sudden  self-revealing 
ray  from  the  presence  of  Christ,  all  the  old  self- 
satisfaction  shrivelled  into  nothingness,  and  he 
"  fell  down  at  Jesus'  knees,  saying.  Depart  from 
me  ;  for  I  am  a  sinful  man,  O  Lord."  That  was 
a  memorable  day  in  the  life  of  Peter  when  Jesus 
"  looked  into  "  ^  His  disciple,  and  saw  Cephas,  the 
man  of  rock,  beneath  the  fluid,  unstable  Peter. 
But  it  was  a  day  no  less  memorable  when  Peter 
looked  into  himself,  and  saw  himself  as  with 
Christ's  own  eyes  ;  the  disciple  then  had  become 
an  apostle  in  the  making.  Self-knowledge  is 
always  best  learned  at  the  feet  of  Jesus. 

IL  Self -reverence. — The  importance  of  self- 
reverence  may  be  seen  in  a  moment  if  we  consider 
what  happens  when  it  is  lost.  Why  is  it  that  the 
path  back  to  a  better  life  is  for  some  so  hard  to 
tread  ?  What  is  it  makes  even  their  best  friends 
shake  their  heads  and  lose  heart  ?  It  is  not  that 
they  are  sinners  above  all  the  rest ;  but  they  have 
begun  to  despair  of  themselves  ;  they  have  lost 
faith  in  themselves  ;  hope  is  gone,  self-reverence, 
self-respect,  dead.  "  Contempt  from  those  about 
us  is  hard  to  bear,  but  God  help   the  poor  wretch 

1  John  i.  42  i/ji.j3\^\f/as. 


8  First  Things  Fi7^st 

who    contemns    himself."  ^     You  remember    poor 
Guinevere's  sad  wail — 

*'  O  shut  me  round  with  narrowing  nunnery-walls, 
Meek  maidens,  from  the  voices  crying  '  shame.' 
/  must  not  scorn  myself. " 

It  is  from  that  scorn  of  self  that,  in  Victor 
Hugo's  great  masterpiece,  the  soul  of  Jean  Valjean 
is  saved  by  the  love  of  the  saintly  bishop.  And  if 
our  love  can  thus  heal  of  self-despisings,  if  it  can 
"  wipe  off  the  soiling  of  despair,"  to  such  a  love  all 
things  are  possible  ;  if  it  cannot,  I  know  not  if 
there  is  anything  that  it  can  do.  For  the  scorn  of 
self  is  the  death  of  hope. 

And  yet,  it  may  be  urged,  what  is  this  scorn  of 
self  but  the  outcome  of  that  knowledge  of  self  of 
which  we  have  just  been  speaking  ?  What  shred 
of  self-reverence  can  still  cling  to  the  man  whose 
eyes  have  once  looked  into  the  whited  sepulchre  of 
his  own  sinful  life  ?  How  should  he  but  loathe 
and  despise  himself?  And  if  our  knowledge  of 
self  be  won  anywhere  save  at  the  feet  of  Christ,  I 
do  not  wonder  if  it  issue  not  in  self-reverence  but 
in  self-despair.  Only  He  can  stand  over  us  as 
we  lie  in  the  depths  of  our  self-abasement  and  say, 
as  He  did  to  Peter,  "  Fear  not."  But  He  can,  and 
He  does. 

Have  we  ever  pondered  this  wonderful  fact  ? 
Christ  knew  what  was  in  man,  and  yet  He  never 
lost  His  reverence  for  man.      Hold  Him  for  what 

1  Mark  Rutherford. 


Self- Reverence  9 

we  will,  human  or  Divine,  none  has  ever  read  the 
human  heart  as  He  read  it.  He  knew  the  hellish 
possibilities  that  slumbered  in  its  dark  depths ; 
knew,  too,  how  they  could  burst  forth  in  horrid 
shapes  of  murderous  hate  and  blood.  And  yet  He 
reverenced  man,  and  caused  him  to  be  reverenced, 
as  none  other  ever  did.  What  to  others  was  only 
a  ruin,  was  to  Him  at  least  ruined  magnificence. 
He  looked  on  human  nature  not  as  one  that  gazes 
on  some  still  lake  and  thinks  only  of  the  foul 
creeping  things  that  nestle  in  its  slimy  depths  ; 
but  rather  as  one  who  sees  how  in  its  quiet  bosom 
it  may  bear,  as  in  a  mirror,  the  fair  image  of  the 
over-arching  sky.  "  If  there  be  a  devil  in  man, 
there  is  an  angel  too  "  ;  Christ  never  missed  the 
angel.  He  saw  the  possible  saint  even  in  the 
actual  devil.  Therefore  in  His  eyes  every  human 
life  was  sacred — the  life  of  the  little  child,  the 
fallen  woman,  the  outcast  publican. 

This  is  the  lesson  Christ  will  teach  me  if  I 
come  to  Him.  I,  am  I  made  in  the  image  and 
likeness  of  God  ?  Yes  ;  the  image  may  be  worn 
and  defaced,  but  it  is  His  image  that  I  bear.  I, 
the  prodigal,  I  who  have  strayed  so  far  and  fallen 
so  low,  am  I  a  child  of  God  ?  Yes  ;  I  may  be  a 
lost  son,  yet  am  I  a  son  still.  Myself,  this 
ruined  shrine,  where  "  the  snake  nests  in  the 
altar-stone,"  whence  all  things  pure  have  fled,  does 
the  Holy  One  still  call  this  His  own,  still  seek 
entrance  here?  He  does,  He  does.  I  may  sell 
myself  to  the  devil,  body,  soul,  and  spirit ;  yet  do 


lO  First  Things  First 

I  belong  to  God  :  He  has  rights  in  me  that  no 
deed  of  mine  can  set  aside.  This  is  what  Christ 
would  teach  me.      Shall  I  not  come  to  Him  ? 

HI.  Self-control. —  Of  the  necessity  of  this 
virtue  it  can  hardly  be  necessary  for  me  to  speak. 
Long  centuries  ago  Plato  depicted  the  soul  under 
the  figure  of  a  many-headed  monster,  a  lion,  and 
a  man  combined  in  one  form.  The  man  repre- 
sents the  higher  nature,  the  reason  ;  the  lion,  the 
passionate  element ;  the  many-headed  monster, 
the  lusts  and  appetites.  Only  when  the  man 
within  us  rules  is  it  well  with  the  soul.  Scripture 
is  full  of  the  same  truth.  "  He  that  ruleth  his 
spirit,"  says  the  wise  man,  "  is  better  than  he  that 
taketh  a  city."  "  Gird  up  the  loins  of  your  mind 
and  be  sober."  "  I  buffet  my  body,"  says  Paul, 
and  the  word  he  uses  is  a  very  picturesque  one  ;  it 
is  borrowed  from  the  language  of  a  pugilist  in  the 
Grecian  games  :  we  might  almost  translate,  "  I 
beat  it  black  and  blue."  He  will  spare  no  pains 
to  keep  under  his  body  and  to  bring  it  into 
subjection. 

Let  every  young  man  then  be  sure  of  this, 
that  if  he  does  not  learn  to  practise  self-control, 
he  is  lost. 

But  is  this  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter  ? 
Is  there  no  more  to  be  said  ?  I  take  down 
Emerson's  noble  essay  on  "  Self-reliance,"  with  its 
motto  so  characteristic  of  its  author's  teaching, 
ne  te  quaesiveris  extra.  All  through  the  essay  he 
rings  the  changes  on  this  word  :  "  trust  thyself," 


Self- Control  li 

"  insist  on  yourself,"  "  nothing  can  bring  you 
peace  but  yourself."  And  the  world  owes  a  great 
debt  to  Emerson  for  his  preaching  of  this  hardy, 
vigorous  gospel.  But  is  there  salvation  in  it  ? 
Salvation,  I  mean,  for  the  weak  and  them  that  are 
ready  to  perish  ?  "  Let  not  sin  reign  in  your 
mortal  body."  But  what  if  the  usurper  be 
already  in  possession  ?  Where  is  the  stronger 
than  the  strong  man  armed  ?  Plato  can  tell  me  that 
the  man  should  keep  his  foot  upon  the  beast  ;  but 
will  Plato,  will  anybody,  tell  me  what  I  am  to 
do  when  the  paw  of  the  brute  is  on  my  back 
and  his  cruel  fangs  are  at  my  throat  ?  Who 
then  shall  deliver  my  soul  from  the  mouth  of  the 
lion  ? 

I  speak  to  some  of  you  who  feel  yourselves 
helpless,  almost  hopeless.  I  might  put  the 
trumpet  to  my  lips  and  cry  with  all  the  moral 
energy  of  which  I  am  capable,  "  Watch  ye,  stand 
fast  in  the  faith,  quit  you  like  men,  be  strong"; 
but  you  have  no  power  to  respond.  I  might  bid 
you  "  flee  youthful  lusts  "  ;  but  it  is  too  late  ;  they 
have  you  and  hold  you  as  in  an  iron  vice.  If 
"  nothing  can  bring  you  peace  but  yourself,"  you 
are  undone.  I  might  preach  self-control  till  the 
crack  of  doom,  and  it  would  avail  you  nothing. 
The  reins  are  out  of  your  hands,  and  the  wild 
horses  of  passion  are  carrying  you  whithersoever 
they  will,  unchecked. 

What  shall  I  say  to  you  ?  Not  "  be  strong  " 
simply — there   is   no    Gospel    in    that  ;    but,    "  be 


1 2  First  Tilings  First 


strengthened."^  You  will  never  get  back  your  self- 
control  till  you  submit  to  Christ-control.  "  Yield 
yourselves  unto  God!'  You  remember  Tennyson's 
picture  of  this  isle  "  ere  Arthur  came  " — 

"  There  grew  great  tracts  of  wilderness, 
Wherein  the  beast  was  ever  more  and  more, 
But  man  was  less  and  less,  till  Arthur  came. 

Then  he  drave 

The  heathen  ;  after,  slew  the  beast,  and  felled 
The  forest,  letting  in  the  sun,  and  made 
Broad  pathways  for  the  hunter  and  the  knight 
And  so  returned." 

"  Wherein  the  beast  was  ever  more  and  more, 
but  man  was  less  and  less  " — is  that  a  picture  of 
our  life  .^  Yet  do  not  despair.  Crown  this  Divine 
Arthur  King,  and  He  will  slay  the  beast,  and  drive 
out  the  foes  that  have  conquered  us.  He  will 
restore  all  the  waste  places  of  the  soul,  and  out  of 
its  wild  confusions  bring  forth  settled  peace  and 
ordered  beauty. 

There  is  a  very  touching  story  told  of  Robert- 
son of  Brighton  by  one  of  his  biographers,^  to 
illustrate  the  wonderful  influence  exercised  by  the 
great  preacher  among  his  own  townsfolk.  A 
shopkeeper  had  in  his  little  parlour  behind  the 
shop  a  portrait  of  Robertson  on  the  wall.  When- 
ever in  his  business  he  was  tempted  to  trickery  or 
meanness,  he  would  hurry  into  the  back  room  and 
look  at  the  picture.      "  And  then,  sir,  I  felt  that  it 

^  Eph.  vi.    ID   ^vdvvafiouade.     The  verb  is  passive,  not  active  ; 
"receive  strength,"  not  "make  yourselves  strong." 
2  Rev.  F.  Arnold. 


Self-Control  13 


was  impossible  for  me  to  do  it."  With  those  pure 
eyes  upon  him  he  could  not  sin.  Yet  that  is  but  a 
feeble  image  of  the  power  that  Christ  is  for 
salvation  in  the  hearts  of  them  that  receive  Him. 

"  Yield  not  your  members  as  instruments  of  un- 
righteousness unto  sin  :  but  yield  yourselves  unto 
God  " — so  runs  our  English  version  ;  but  there  is 
a  truth  in  the  word  that  no  translation  can 
reproduce.  The  tenses  of  the  verbs  are  not  the 
same.^  Perhaps  we  might  paraphrase  in  some 
such  way  as  this  :  "  Do  not  go  on  yielding  your- 
selves to  sin,  but  now  by  one  definite  act  yield 
yourselves  to  God."  The  one  word  points  to  the 
successive  acts  of  sin  by  which  evil  at  last  obtains 
the  mastery  over  us  ;  the  other  to  the  one  act  of 
supreme  self-surrender  which  carries  all  else  with 
\\.?  It  is  to  that  supreme  self-surrender  I  call  you 
now.  Lay  in  Christ's  hand,  once  for  all,  the 
sceptre  of  your  life  ;  say  to  Him — - 

*'  In  full  and  glad  surrender, 

I  give  myself  to  Thee, 
Thine  utterly  and  only 

And  evermore  to  be. 
Reign  over  me,  Lord  Jesus  ! 

O  make  my  heart  Thy  throne  ! 
It  shall  be  Thine,  my  Saviour, 

It  shall  be  Thine  alone." 


^  TrapiardueTe  .   .    .   wapacrT'/jcraTe. 

2  See  Bishop  Westcott's   papers  on  R.V.  in  Expositor   (Third 
Series). 


HOW  JESUS  DEALT  WITH   INQUIRERS 


II 

HOW   JESUS  DEALT  WITH    INQUIRERS 

THE  subject  of  this  address  is  one  of  which 
the  four  Gospels  are  full.  Yet  I  do  not 
know  of  any  particular  verse  that  I  can  use  as 
"  text."  But  since  the  address  itself  will  be  full 
of  "  texts  "  from  beginning  to  end,  there  is  perhaps 
the  less  need.  My  plan  is  a  very  simple  one — 
to  let  the  sacred  narratives  tell  their  own  story, 
and  show  us  how  Jesus  dealt  with  the  men  and 
women  who  sought  Him. 

Jesus  had  inquirers — that  is  the  first  point  to 
notice.  Probably  even  we  who  have  been  reading 
our  Bibles  all  our  life  have  never  yet  realised 
how  the  multitudes  of  Palestine  sought  after 
Christ.  Take,  e.g.^  St.  Mark's  Gospel,  and  run 
your  eye  rapidly  over  its  earlier  chapters,  and 
note  with  what  remarkable  frequency  sentences 
like  these  occur  :  "  And  they  say  unto  Him,  All 
are  seeking  Thee";^  "And  they  came  to  Him 
from   every   quarter "  ;  ^    "  And   when   ...   it   was 

^  i.  36.  ''  i.  45. 

C 


1 8  First  Things  First 

noised  that  He  was  in  the  house,  many  were 
gathered  together,  so  that  there  was  no  longer 
room  for  them,  no,  not  even  about  the  door : 
and  He  spake  the  word  unto  them  "  ;  ^  "  And  He 
went  forth  again  by  the  seaside,  and  all  the 
multitude  resorted  unto  Him  "  ;  ^  "  And  Jesus 
with  His  disciples  withdrew  to  the  sea,  and  a 
great  multitude  from  Galilee  followed  "  ;  ^  "  And 
He  cometh  into  a  house.  And  the  multitude 
Cometh  together  again  "  ;  *  "  He  cometh  .  .  . 
and  the  multitude  cometh " — so  is  it  ever.  In 
the  house,  by  the  sea -shore,  in  the  desert — 
wherever  He  is,  there  are  the  multitudes  gathered 
together.  Or  we  may  take  individual  instances. 
Wise  men  from  the  East  come  to  His  cradle 
saying,  "  Where  is  He  that  is  born  King  of  the 
Jews  ? "  As  the  shadow  of  the  cross  falls  upon 
Him,  Greeks  from  the  West  say,  "  Sir,  we  would 
see  Jesus."  Nicodemus  comes  to  Him  by  night. 
John  sends  messengers  to  Him  from  prison.  The 
woman  of  Samaria  questions  Him  at  the  well  by 
the  wayside.  His  very  enemies,  writhing  in  their 
helplessness,  confess,  "  Behold  how  ye  prevail 
nothing  :   lo,  the  world  is  gone  after  Him." 

So  was  it  in  Christ's  day.  How  is  it  to-day  ? 
Ah  me  !  we  are  all  discussing  "  non-churchgoing," 
and  lamenting  that  the  "  multitudes "  seem  to 
care  so  little  for  the  preaching  of  Christ's  Gospel. 
And  truly  that  is  sad  enough.  But  what  seems 
to  me  far  sadder  still,  is  that  good  men  and 
1  ii.  I,  2.  '^  ii.  13.  ^  iii.  7.  ^  iii.  20. 


How  Jesus  dealt  with  Inquirers         19 

women  should  come  together  in  conferences  and 
conventions  and  what  not,  and  say,  as  I  have 
heard  them  say,  "  Yes,  yes  ;  we  may  not  have 
got  the  crowds,  and  our  churches  may  be  half 
empty ;  but  then,  after  all,  crowds  are  not  every- 
thing ;  it  is  where  two  or  three  are  gathered 
together  that  Christ  has  promised  to  be."  Well, 
we  may  set  up  what  excuses  of  straw  we  like, 
the  fact  remains — when  Jesus  was  here  upon 
earth,  the  crowds  were  with  Him,  the  common 
people  heard  Him  gladly ;  and  if  to-day  His 
Church  has  lost  or  is  losing  its  hold  upon  the 
multitudes,  something  is  wrong,  somebody  is  to 
blame. 

Christ's  example  tests  individuals  as  well  as 
Churches.  Men  in  doubt,  in  difficulty,  in  trouble 
came  to  Him.  We  Christians  are  His  representa- 
tives to-day  ;  does  anybody  come  to  us  ?  Does 
any  one  ever  say  to  you,  "  I  am  wrong,  all  wrong  ; 
can  you  help  me  ? "  Does  some  poor  mother 
ever  ask  you  to  sit  with  her  sick  lad  ?  When 
there  is  death  in  the  house,  and  the  blinds  are 
drawn,  and  the  mourners  go  softly,  do  they  listen 
for  your  knock,  and  wish  that  you  may  come  ? 
Are  we  wanted  ?  When  we  are  gone,  will  any 
one  miss  us  ? 

Christ  had  inquirers  ;  how  did  He  deal  with 
them  ?  Mark — and  while  so  many  to-day  deny 
His  sovereign  claims,  let  these  unworthy  hands 
put  the  crown   upon   His    brow, — He   was   never 


20  First  Things  First 


puzzled.  He  is  never  taken  aback  ;  He  never 
hesitates.  The  troubled  look  of  perplexity  never 
gathers  on  His  face  :  He  meets  every  questioner 
with  the  steady  gaze  of  one  before  whose  clear 
vision  the  whole  world  of  truth  lies  open.  His 
enemies  scheme  and  lay  their  trap  and  put  up 
their  spokesman  with  his  well-conned  speech,  but 
He  is  never  taken  by  surprise.  He  never  takes 
a  case  to  avizandum^  as  the  Scottish  law-courts 
say.  He  does  not  say,  "  The  problem  is  new,  I 
must  take  time  to  consider  it  ;  come  back  again 
to-morrow."  Pharisees  and  Herodians  may  take 
counsel  together  how  they  shall  catch  Him  in  His 
talk  ;  He  takes  counsel  with  no  man  how  He 
shall  answer  them.  Yet,  though  His  retorts  can 
be  sharp  and  terrible,  He  never  quibbles  or  dodges 
or  evades,  and  even  the  very  form  of  His  answers 
is  so  perfect  that  to  mend  is  to  mar.^ 

There  is  an  open-air  service  going  on  in  the 
streets  of  Jerusalem  ;  the  preacher  is  Jesus.  Just 
on  the  edge  of  the  crowd  stands  a  little  group  of 
"  officers  " — policemen,  as  we  should  say — listen- 
ing spell -bound.  They  have  been  sent  by  the 
authorities  to  take  Jesus.  But  they  go  back 
without  their  prisoner.  "  Why  have  ye  not 
brought  Him  ?  "  "  Never  man  spake  like  this 
Man  !  "      Were  they  not  right  ? 

Yet  Jesus  did  not  answer  all  His  questioners. 
"  When  thou  wast  young,"  said  Christ  to  Peter, 
"  thou  girdedst  thyself,  and  walkedst  whither  thou 

1  See  Dr.  Robertson  Nicoll's  very  suggestive  Life  of  Jesus  Christ. 


How  Jesus  dealt  until  Inquirers         21 

wouldest :  but  when  thou  shalt  be  old,  thou  shalt 
stretch  forth  thy  hands,  and  another  shall  gird 
thee,  and  carry  thee  whither  thou  wouldest  not." 
Just  at  that  moment,  Peter,  turning  about,  sees 
John  following  :  "  Lord,  and  this  man,  what  ? " 
"  If  I  will  that  he  tarry  till  I  come,  what  is  that 
to  thee  ?  follow  thou  Me."  "  And  one  said  unto 
Him,  Lord,  are  they  few  that  be  saved  ?  And 
He  said  unto  them.  Strive  to  enter  in  by  the 
narrow  door :  for  many,  I  say  unto  you,  shall 
seek  to  enter  in,  and  shall  not  be  able."  "  Lord, 
dost  Thou  at  this  time  restore  the  kingdom  to 
Israel  ?  "  And  once  more  He  lays  His  finger  on 
their  lips  :  "  It  is  not  for  you  to  know — it  is  not 
for  you  to  know  times  or  seasons  which  the 
Father  hath  set  within  His  own  authority." 

What  does  it  mean  ?  That  Christ  can  hold  no 
interview  with  idle  curiosity ;  that  He  will  not 
satisfy  mere  prying  inquisitiveness.  "  The  secret 
things  belong  unto  the  Lord  our  God  "  ;  and  when 
with  our  coarse  fingers  we  twitch  at  the  veil  that 
hides  them  from  us.  He  does  but  answer  us  with 
His  "  It  is  not  for  you  to  know."  "  Of  the  fruit 
of  the  trees  of  the  garden  we  may  eat :  but  of  the 
fruit  of  the  tree  which  is  in  the  midst  of  the 
garden,  God  hath  said.  Ye  shall  not  eat."  And 
who  shall  murmur  that  it  is  so  ?  If  seven  things 
are  revealed,  may  not  the  eighth  be  kept  secret  ? 
If  we  may  wander  at  will  through  the  many- 
roomed  mansion  of  God's  great  universe,  who 
shall  complain  if  here  and  there  is  a  locked  door 


2  2  First  Things  First 

whereon  His  finger  has  written  Private}  But 
Christ  forbids  vain  speculation  only  to  enforce 
obvious  duty.  "  And  this  man,  what  ?  "  "  What 
is  that  to  thee  ?  folloiv  thou  Me!'  "  Are  they  few 
that  be  saved  ?  "  "  Strive  to  enter  in  at  that  narrow 
door!'  "  Dost  Thou  at  this  time  restore  the  king- 
dom to  Israel  ?  "  "  It  is  not  for  you  to  know  .  .  . 
but  ye  shall  receive  power  .  .  .  and  ye  s J  tail  be  my 
witnesses r  He  hath  showed  thee,  O  man,  what  is 
good.  "  It  is  true,  although  strange,"  says  a  great 
and  wise  writer,  ^  "  that  there  are  multitudes  of 
burning  questions  which  we  must  do  our  best  to 
ignore,  to  forget  their  existence  ;  and  it  is  not 
more  strange,  after  all,  than  many  other  facts  in 
this  wonderfully  mysterious  and  defective  existence 
of  ours.  One-fourth  of  life  is  intelligible,  the  other 
three-fourths  is  unintelligible  darkness  ;  and  our 
earliest  duty  is  to  cultivate  the  habit  of  not 
looking  round  the  corner."  Well  would  it  be  for 
many  of  us,  if,  like  the  Psalmist,  we  "  stilled  and 
quieted "  our  souls  ;  if  we  did  not  exercise  our- 
selves in  great  matters,  in  things  that  are  too  high 
for  us. 

The  silences  of  Jesus  are  not  ended  yet.  He 
is  before  the  high  priest,  on  the  eve  of  the 
crucifixion.  He  listens  as  the  false  witnesses 
demolish  one  another's  testimony,  but  He  says 
nothing.  At  last  the  high  priest  can  bear  it  no 
longer :  "  Answerest  Thou  nothing  ?  what  is  it 
which  these  witness   against   Thee  ?  "      "  But   He 

1  Mark  Rutherford. 


How  Jestcs  dealt  with  Inqtiirers         23 

held  His  peace  and  answered  nothing."  Again, 
He  is  before  Pilate  in  the  palace  :  "  Whence  art 
Thou  ?  "  "  But  Jesus  gave  him  no  answer."  Yet 
again,  He  is  before  Herod  :  "  And  he  questioned 
Him  in  many  words  ;  but  He  answered  him 
nothing." 

What  does  it  mean  ?  That  leering  wickedness, 
bold,  defiant  badness,  gross,  conscience-defiling 
sin  will  get  no  answer  from  the  pure  lips  of  Jesus. 
With  Caiaphas  standing  in  the  shoes  of  the  holy- 
men  of  old  and  yet  compassing  the  death  of  the 
Son  of  God  :  with  Pilate  the  unjust  judge  who  first 
acquitted  and  then  commanded  to  be  scourged 
his  innocent  Prisoner :  with  Herod  wagging  his 
impudent  tongue,  when  he  should  rather  have  died 
of  shame  in  the  presence  of  the  friend  of  the 
murdered  Baptist — what  converse  can  Jesus  have 
with  such  as  these  ?      He  answered  them  nothing. 

I  draw  a  bow  at  a  venture.  It  may  seem  like 
needless  insult  to  bracket  any  of  you  who  read 
these  words  with  Caiaphas  and  Pilate  and  Herod. 
Yet  who  knows  what  devilry  may  lurk  under  a 
fine  dress  or  a  decent  coat  ?  But  this  I  say  unto 
you,  by  the  word  of  the  Lord,  that  if  your  life  be 
corrupt  and  unclean,  if  you  are  playing  fast 
and  loose  with  the  plainest  laws  of  God,  do  not 
come  whining  about  your  difficulties — literary 
difficulties,  historical  difficulties,  and  the  like — 
for  you  will  get  no  answer.  Go,  read  your 
Decalogue  ;  that,  at  least,  is  simple  enough.  Wash 
you,  make  you   clean,  put  away  the   evil   of  your 


24  First  Things  First 

doings.  Then  come  back,  and  perchance  this 
Christ  may  hold  some  speech  with  you.  Till 
then,  silence — silence — silence. 

Turn  once  more  to  another  group  of  questioners. 
You  may  read  of  them  in  the  22nd  chapter  of 
Matthew.  Here  is  a  little  knot  of  men  who, 
caring  nothing  about  Caesar  or  tribute-money, 
have  become  suddenly  interested  in  both  :  "  What 
thinkest  Thou  ?  Is  it  lawful  to  give  tribute  unto 
Caesar,  or  not  ? "  And  here  are  the  Sadducees 
with  their  elaborately  trifling  conundrum  concern- 
ing the  seven -times -wedded  widow:  "In  the 
resurrection,  therefore,  whose  wife  shall  she  be  of 
the  seven  ?  for  they  all  had  her."  And  last  of  all 
a  lawyer,  a  little  casuist,  with  his  nice  discrimina- 
tions and  fine-spun  distinctions,  anxious  about  laws 
that  are  great,  and  laws  that  are  small  :  "  which 
is  the  great  commandment  in  the  law  ? "  We 
know  how  they  fared,  one  and  all :  confusion 
overwhelmed  them.  "  No  one  was  able  to  answer 
Him  a  word,  neither  durst  any  man  from  that 
day  forth  ask  Him  any  more  questions." 

Let  us  bring  our  questions  to  Christ,  but  let 
us  take  heed  to  ourselves.  We  cannot  deceive 
Him.  He  "  perceived  their  craftiness."  He  knows 
what  is  in  man,  and  needeth  not  that  any  should 
ask  Him.  He  darts  His  swift  interrogation  into 
our  inmost  souls  :  "  Why  reason  ye  in  your 
hearts  ?  "  He  plucks  aside  the  hypocrite's  robe, 
and  shows  him  the  naked  self  within.  Bring  your 
question,  but  remember  Christ  will  go  behind  the 


How  Jesus  dealt  with  Inquirers        25 

question  to  the  questioner.  He  will  not  deal  with 
you  as  with  an  anonymous  correspondent,  and 
send  you  the  answer,  not  knowing  who  or  what 
you  are.  "  I  also  will  ask  of  you  one  question," 
He  says.  And  if  you  dare  not  meet  His  gaze  ;  if 
your  question  is  a  sham,  and  yourself  a  hypocrite. 
He  will  only  answer  you  with  the  hypocrite's 
infinite  rebuke,  or  with  the  silence  that  stabs  worse 
than  His  keenest  words — "  neither  tell  I  you  by 
what  authority  I  do  these  things." 

But  it  is  time  to  turn  to  the  other  side  of  our 
subject.  If  Christ  seems  to  us  sometimes  stern 
and  harsh,  yet  on  the  other  hand  what  large  and 
loving  and  helpful  answers  He  gives  to  the  sincere 
and  earnest  seeker  !  "  And  when  He  was  alone, 
they  that  were  about  Him  with  the  twelve,  asked 
of  Him  the  parables."  And  he  sits  down  by  their 
side,  as  a  mother  with  her  child,  and  makes  all 
things  plain  to  them.  They  bring  to  Him  their 
failures,  and  ask  Him  the  wherefore  of  them : 
"  Why  could  not  we  cast  him  out  ? "  And  He 
tells  them  :  "  Because  of  your  little  faith  .... 
This  kind  can  come  forth  by  nothing  save  by 
prayer."  And  even  when  there  seems  a  tone  of 
reproach  in  His  voice,  that  they  should  be  so  slow 
of  heart  to  learn  the  meaning  of  His  life.  He 
repeats  the  old  lesson  again  with  added  sweetness 
and  beauty  :  "  Have  I  been  so  long  time  with  you, 
and  yet  hast  thou  not  known  Me,  Philip  ?  "  And 
we  pass  from  thence  as  from  the  temple's  porch 


26  Fwst  Things  First 

into  the  very  Holy  of  Holies  of  Christ's  teaching. 
So  is  it  always.  A  wayside  beggar,  blind  and 
forlorn,  cries  to  Him,  "  Lord,  that  I  may  receive 
my  sight ! "  And  immediately  the  sightless  eye- 
balls are  made  to  see.  A  leper  outcast  from  the 
ways  and  homes  of  men  clings  to  Him  :  "  Lord, 
if  thou  wilt.  Thou  canst  make  me  clean."  And 
He  put  forth  His  hand  and  touched  him,  and  his 
flesh  came  again  as  the  flesh  of  a  little  child. 
Ignorance,  groping  blindly  in  the  dark,  turns 
piteously  to  Him  :  "  Who  is  He,  Lord,  that  I  may 
believe  on  Him  ?  "  "  Thou  hast  both  seen  Him, 
and  He  it  is  that  talketh  with  thee."  And  when 
John  sends  from  the  prison,  where  doubts  rained 
thick  and  fast  upon  him,  to  ask,  "  Art  Thou  He 
that  Cometh,  or  look  we  for  another?"  this  time 
Christ  will  not  content  himself  with  a  merely 
verbal  message,  but,  "  in  that  hour  He  cured  many 
of  diseases  and  plagues  and  evil  spirits  ;  and  in 
many  that  were  blind,  He  restored  sight,"  and  then 
the  answer  is  given,  "  Go  your  way  and  tell  John 
what  things  ye  have  seen  and  heard." 

It  would  be  easy  enough  to  multiply  instances 
of  Christ's  ready  response  to  the  earnest  inquirer. 
But  these  perhaps  may  suffice.  One  or  two  simple 
principles  now  emerge  and  may  be  briefly  stated. 
Christ  dealt  with  men  individually.  All  our  talk 
nowadays  is  about  the  "  masses."  Jesus  never 
"  lumped "  men  in  that  indiscriminate  fashion. 
He  concerned  himself  with  individuals — Peter, 
James,  John,  Mary,  Martha.     The  brief  story  of 


How  Jesus  dealt  with  Inquirers        27 

His  life  is  full  of  private  interviews.  And  so 
dealing  with  men,  He  entered,  by  the  power  of 
His  perfect  sympathy,  into  the  life  of  each,  and 
met,  because  He  knew  its  individual  wants.  "  He 
takes  your  view  of  things,"  says  James  Smetham, 
in  one  of  his  delightful  letters,  "  and  mentions  no 
other.  He  takes  the  old  woman's  view  of  things 
by  the  wash-tub,  and  has  a  great  interest  in  wash 
powder  ;  Sir  Isaac  Newton's  view  of  things,  and 
wings  among  the  stars  with  him  ;  the  artist's  view, 
and  feeds  among  the  lilies  ;  the  lawyer's,  and  shares 
the  justice  of  things.  But  He  never  plays  the 
lawyer  or  the  philosopher  or  the  artist  to  the  old 
woman.      He  is  above  that  littleness." 

This  is  the  explanation  of  Christ's  infinitely 
varied  methods  of  dealing  with  men.  It  is  only 
the  quack  who  has  one  remedy  that  will  suit  a 
hundred  different  patients ;  the  wise  physician 
studies  each  case  separately,  marking  individual 
symptoms,  tracing  back  the  course  of  the  disease 
to  its  very  beginning.  It  was  so  the  Great  Physi- 
cian dealt  with  the  souls  of  men. 

"  He  took  the  suffering  human  race, 
He  read  each  wound,  each  weakness  clear, 
And  struck  His  finger  on  the  place, 
And  said,  Thou  ailest  here  and  here. ''^'^ 

"  Master,"  said  one,  "  I  will  follow  Thee 
whithersoever  Thou  goest."  It  is  the  language 
not   of  insincerity   but    of   thoughtlessness,   of    a 

*  Matthew  Arnold. 


28  First  Thino-s  First 


<i 


shallow  nature,  quickly  stirred.  The  speaker  does 
not  know  himself ;  and  therefore  Christ  thrusts  him 
back  upon  himself  that  he  may  learn  the  needed 
lesson.  "  The  foxes  have  holes,  and  the  birds  of 
the  heaven  have  nests  ;  but  the  Son  of  Man  hath 
not  where  to  lay  His  head — now,  wilt  thou  be  My 
disciple  ?  "  Nicodemus  comes  to  Jesus  by  night : 
"  Rabbi," — I  wonder  how  often  he  had  said  the 
little  speech  over  to  himself, — "  Rabbi,  we  know 
that  thou  art  a  teacher  come  from  God  :  for  no 
man  can  do  these  signs  that  Thou  doest  except 
God  be  with  him."  But  Nicodemus  is  on  the 
wrong  tack  ;  there  is  no  salvation  that  way  ;  and 
so  Jesus  pulls  him  up  sharp  :  "  Verily,  verily,  I 
say  unto  thee,  except  a  man  be  born  anew,  he 
cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God."  He  "struck 
His  finger  on  the  place."  "  All  these  things  " — 
the  commandments — said  the  rich  young  ruler, 
"  have  I  observed  from  my  youth.  What  lack  I 
yet?"  Again  Christ  strikes  His  finger  on  the 
place  :  "  Go  sell  whatsoever  thou  hast,  and  give  to 
the  poor," — thou  ailest  here.  For  awhile,  as  He 
talks  with  the  woman  of  Samaria,  His  words 
slip  off  unheeded  from  the  hard  surface  of  her  life. 
Then,  suddenly,  unerringly.  His  finger  is  on  the 
place  :  "  Go  call  thy  husband."  You  can  see  the 
patient  wince  :  "  I — I — I — I  have  no  husband." 
But  this  Physician  makes  no  mistakes  ;  the  sharp 
stroke  did  its  work  ;  to  her  last  day,  Christ  would 
be  to  this  woman  "  the  Man  that  told  me  all  things 
that  ever  I  did,"  and  so  telling  her,  saved  her. 


How  Jesus  dealt  with  Inquirers        29 

Hear,  then,  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter. 
The  sincere  inquirer  may  always  come  boldly. 
The  disciples,  we  read  once,  "  understood  not  the 
saying,  and  were  afraid  to  ask  Him."  But  the 
disciple  need  never  fear.  With  loud-tongued 
hypocrisy,  with  strutting  ignorance,  boasting  itself 
to  be  some  great  one,  Christ  can  have  no  fellow- 
ship. But  with  meek-eyed  sincerity,  with  ignorance 
that  bows  its  head  and  craves  to  be  taught,  He 
"  will  wear  the  stars  out  with  loving  talk."  Do  we 
really  want  His  answer  ?  Then  we  may  have  it — 
an  answer  to  our  own  question,  and  in  our  own 
speech. 

Take  your  questions  to  Christ  Himself.  "  We 
spake  to  Thy  disciples " — our  teachers,  our 
ministers — "  that  they  should  cast  out  our  doubts  ; 
but  they  could  not."  "  Bring  them  unto  Mel'  says 
Jesus.  If,  like  Nathaniel,  you  are  a  man  with  a 
prejudice,  "  come  and  see,"  see  for  yourself.  Do 
not  stop  short  at  Philip  ;  get  to  Christ.  Wilt  thou 
also  be  His  inquirer  ?  Say  unto  Him,  "  Lord,  that 
I  may  receive  my  sight ! "  and  He  will  make  your 
blind  eyes  to  see.  Plead  with  Him,  "  If  Thou 
wilt  Thou  canst  make  me  clean,"  and  He  will  take 
away  the  leprosy  of  your  sin.  Cry  with  the  energy 
born  of  despair,  "  If  thou  canst  do  anything,  have 
compassion  on  us  and  help  us,"  and  He  will  cast 
out  the  evil  spirit  that  has  torn  your  life,  for  this 
Man  commandeth  even  the  unclean  spirits  of  our 
modern  time  —  Drunkenness,  Gambling,  Lust, 
Avarice — and  they  do  obey  Him  ! 


WHAT   IS   IT  TO  BE  A   CHRISTIAN? 


^^That  life  which  I  now  live  in  the  Jlesh  I  live  in  faith,  the 
faith  which  is  in  the  Son  of  God,  who  loved  7ne,  and  gave  Himself  up 
forme.'''' — Gal.  ii.  20. 


Ill 

WHAT  IS  IT  TO  BE  A  CHRISTIAN? 

IT  is  very  perplexing  and  not  a  little  disheart- 
ening to  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel  to  find 
that  there  are  many,  even  among  those  who  listen 
to  him  every  week,  who  have  still  no  clear  and 
definite  conception  of  what  is  meant  by  being  a 
Christian.  That  humbling  experience  has  been 
mine  several  times  of  late.  As  one  and  another 
have  told  me  of  their  difficulties  ;  as  I  have  seen 
the  mist  which  for  them  has  hung  about  Christ  and 
the  Christian  life,  I  have  felt  rebuked.  I  have 
thought,  if  I  have  not  said,  "  Is  this  all  that  one's 
preaching  has  done  ?  Christ,  what  He  is,  what 
He  has  done  for  man,  what  He  claims  from  man, 
— is  it  still  all  so  dark,  so  vague,  so  unreal  ? 
Surely  there  must  be  something  defective,  at  least 
something  wanting  in  directness  and  simplicity, 
in  a  ministry  which  can  leave  so  many  of  those 
who  listen  to  it  floundering  in  a  morass  of  uncer- 
tainties and  misconceptions." 

I  want  in  this  address,  therefore,  to  go  back  to 
D 


34  First  Tilings  First 

the  first  principles  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 
And  if  to  some  of  you  I  seem  to  be  treading  an 
old  and  well-beaten  track,  you  will,  I  am  sure,  bear 
with  me  if  one  word  of  mine  can  help  some  one  to 
see  Jesus. 

Part  of  my  task  must  be  to  seek  to  remove 
misconceptions  of  what  it  is  that  Christ  asks  from  us. 
It  is  not,  I  think,  saying  too  much  to  declare  that 
Christ's  way  into  the  hearts  and  minds  of  multi- 
tudes is  blocked  by  obstacles  wholly  of  our  own 
creating.  We  will  insist  on  what  Christ  never  insists. 
To  His  conditions,  at  once  simple  and  all-sufficient, 
we  will  add  others  of  our  own. 

Yet  let  me  be  quite  clear.  I  am  not  in  search 
of  a  "  religion  made  easy "  to  suit  any  man's 
convenience.  I  do  not  want  to  make  the  door 
wider  than  Christ  has  made  it.  I  doubt  very 
much  if  I  should  help  any  one  by  saying  :  "  Ah  ! 
you  have  intellectual  difficulties,  have  you  ?  Well, 
come  let  us  see  ;  I  will  cut  down  the  creed  to  a 
minimum  for  you  ;  this  may  go,  and  that,  and  that 
— there  now,  there's  no  difficulty  with  the  rest,  is 
there  ? "  No  good  comes  of  that  kind  of  thing. 
The  man  who  says  "  Halve  your  creed  and  I'll 
turn  Christian  "  is  not  the  man  to  come  to  Christ 
though  you  do  halve  your  creed  to  suit  him.  If 
you  come  to  me  asking,  "  How  little  need  I  believe 
in  order  to  be  a  Christian  ?  "  I  am  afraid  I  cannot 
help  you.  You  are  on  the  wrong  tack  ;  you  are 
coming  to  the  question  in  the  wrong  spirit ;  you 
are  anxious  about  the  wrong  things.      Christ  is  con- 


What  is  it  to  be  a  Christian  ?  35 

cerned  about  your  disordered  spiritual  condition  ; 
and  here  are  you  troubled  above  all  things  else 
about  the  wholeness  of  your  intellectual  skin. 
Moreover,  "belief"  of  the  sort  you  mean  is  of 
quite  secondary  importance ;  such  belief  com- 
mendeth  us  not  to  God  :  neither  if  we  believe — in 
this  sense — are  we  the  better  ;  nor  if  we  believe 
not  are  we  the  worse. 

Still,  though  I  say  this — and  I  think  it  ought 
to  be  said — there  are  many  who,  to  their  own 
hurt,  confuse  things  that  differ,  who  lose  the  essen- 
tial amid  the  non-essential,  who  (as  I  have  said 
already)  insist  upon  what  Christ  does  not  insist,  and 
so  make  His  plain  ways  rough,  His  straight  paths 
crooked.  It  is  such  as  these  that  I  want  to  keep 
specially  in  mind  in  what  follows. 

Go  back  to  the  verse  I  have  taken  as  my  text  : 
"  That  life  which  I  now  live  in  the  flesh  I  live  in 
faith,  the  faith  which  is  in  the  Son  of  God,  who 
loved  me,  and  gave  Himself  up  for  me."  I  do 
not  come  to  these  words  as  a  theological  expositor, 
and  there  isj;.ery  much  in  them  of  which  just  now 
I  can  say  nothing.  I  quote  them  for  one  special 
purpose  :  that  they  may  reveal  to  us  the  secret  of 
the  Christian  life.  And  certainly,  if  ever  to  man  that 
secret  was  made  known,  it  was  to  the  Apostle 
Paul.  He  explains  it  to  us  in  these  words.  Here 
is  his  answer,  concise  yet  comprehensive,  to  our 
question,  What  is  it  to  be  a  Christian  ?  Mark 
then — To  be  a  Christian  is  to  be  living  by  faith 


36  First  Things  First 

in  personal  union  with  Jesus  Christ.  The  Christian 
life  is  a  life  of  which  Christ  is  "  motive,  pattern, 
and  power."  This  is  vital,  essential  ;  all  else  is 
secondary.  Moreover,  this  is  a  working  definition 
of  Christianity  about  which  there  is  now  pretty 
general  agreement.  Take  these  words,  e.g.^  from 
the  pen  of  an  eminent  theologian,  with  whom  on 
many  points  not  a  few  of  us  would  find  ourselves 
entirely  at  variance  :  "  True  Christianity,"  says  the 
Rev.  Charles  Gore,  "  is  a  personal  relationship — 
the  conscious,  deliberate  adhesion  of  men  who 
know  their  weakness,  their  sin,  their  fallibility,  to  a 
Redeemer  whom  they  know  to  be  supreme,  sinless, 
infallible."  ^  General  Booth  might  subscribe  to 
that  as  readily  as  the  editor  of  Lux  Mundi. 

Let  me  now,  for  the  sake  of  greater  clearness, 
split  up  what  I  have  just  said  into  two  or  three 
simple  negative  propositions. 

I.  To  be  a  Christian  does  not  mean  simply  to  be 
what  we  call  "  a  good  man!' — Here  is  one  who  is 
truthful,  honest,  kind,  loving — surely,  we  say,  he 
is  a  Christian  ?  But  we  have  just  seen  that  to  be 
a  Christian  means  to  be  in  a  certain  definite 
relation  to  Jesus  Christ.  But  this  man — T  am 
supposing  a  case — takes  no  account  of  Christ 
whatsoever,  gives  Him  no  place  in  his  life,  wholly 
ignores — it  may  be  openly  repudiates — the  claims 
of  His  authority  over  him.  How  then,  if  words 
are  to  have  any  meaning  at  all,  can  we  call  such  a 
one  a  Christian  ?      This  is  not,  be  it  observed,  to 

*  The  Incarnation  of  the  Son  of  Gody  p.  i. 


What  is  it  to  be  a  Christian  ?  37 

deny  the  reality  of  his  truthfulness,  his  honesty, 
his  kindness,  or  whatever  other  virtues  he  may 
possess  ;  it  is  to  deny  his  right  to  the  name  of 
Christian. 

So  again,  when  from  any  cause  a  man  is 
aroused  to  a  serious  concern  about  himself,  his 
first  thought  is  often  how  he  may  better  himself: 
he  will  root  out  that  vice,  he  will  cultivate  this 
virtue.  With  a  wistful  earnestness,  pathetic 
almost  in  its  eagerness,  I  have  heard  men  under 
some  strong  spiritual  impulse  resolve  that  they 
would  "  try  to  be  good,"  and  live  a  purer  life. 
God  forbid  that  I  should  discourage  such  "  trying." 
Anything,  anything  is  better  than  the  callous  ease 
that  is  content  to  let  things  slide.  And  "  trying 
to  be  good"  may  do  something — much  indeed  ; 
certainly,  no  goodness  is  to  be  got  without  our 
trying.  But  we  shall  never  become  Christians 
that  way.  That  is  beginning  at  the  wrong  end. 
The  starting  point  of  the  Christian  life  is,  and 
must  be,  Christ.  He  is  its  Alpha  as  He  is  also 
its  Omega. 

"  But,"  it  may  be  urged,  "  if  without  Christ  a 
man  may  attain  to  goodness,  why  concern  himself 
about  Christ  at  all  ?  Religion  itself  can  aim  at 
nothing  higher  than  that."  And  that  is  so  far 
true.  Christianity  is  Christ's  way  of  bringing  men 
to  God  and  making  them  Godlike,  that  is,  good. 
A  Christian  man  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than 
just  a  good  man  in  the  making.  But  the  point 
to  be  emphasized  is  this,  that  while  the  possibilities 


38  First  Things  First 

of  attainment  in  the  one  case  are  limited  by  the 
individual  and  the  forces  that  centre  in  him,  in 
the  other  they  are  limited  only  by  Christ  Himself. 
The  two  great  questions  are  these — What  is  your 
moral  ideal  ?  What  is  your  "  moral  dynamic  "  ?  ^ 
The  Christian's  answer  to  both  is  "  Christ."  In 
Him  he  has  the  highest  possible  ideal ;  in  Him, 
too,  the  power  needful  to  realise  it.  You  may 
point  me  to  good  men  who  are  not  Christians, 
and  to  unworthy  men  who  say  they  are  Christians. 
But  that  means  no  more  than  this,  that  while  the 
one  has  been  true  to  his  ideal,  and  has  made  use 
of  such  power  as  was  his,  the  other  has  done 
neither.  My  present  contention  remains  un- 
touched, that  while  it  may  be  true  that  a  man 
may  reject  Christ  and  yet  be  possessed  of  many 
virtues — be,  what  we  call,  using  the  word  in  no 
very  exact  sense,  a  good  man — nevertheless  his 
life  can  never  know  the  moral  greatness,  the 
repose,  the  triumph  which  are  all  possible  to  him 
whose  life  centres  in  Christ,  who  finds  in  His 
perfect  example  an  ever-lifting  ideal,  in  His  Divine 
strength  a  never-changing  stay. 

2.  To  be  a  Christian  does  not  mean  necessarily 
to  believe  a  certain  creed. — A  simple  illustration 
will  make  my  point  clear.  We  call  a  man 
Liberal  or  Conservative,  Home  Ruler  or  Unionist ; 
what  do  we  mean  ?  That  he  holds  certain 
political  opinions,  that  he  has  assumed  a  certain 
definite  mental  attitude  towards  one  or  other  of 

^  I  borrow  the  phrase  from  Principal  Shairp. 


What  is  it  to  be  a  Christian  ?  39 

the  current  political  creeds.  This  is  not,  or  at 
least  it  should  not  be,  a  personal  matter.  A  wise 
citizen  holds  to  his  belief,  not  because  it  happens 
to  be  expounded  by  this  or  that  parliamentary 
leader,  but  because  he  regards  it  as  being  under 
all  the  circumstances  the  best  and  truest  attain- 
able. He  does  not,  as  we  sometimes  say,  pin 
his  faith  to  any  man. 

But  the  holding  of  no  number  of  opinions, 
accurate  or  inaccurate,  biblical,  theological,  or  what 
not,  entitles  a  man  to  the  Christian  name.  For 
here  the  vital  point  is  not  the  relation  of  the 
intellect  to  a  creed,  but  the  attitude  of  the  whole 
man — the  will,  the  feelings,  the  intellect — to  a 
person.  He  who  thus  with  his  whole  being 
cleaves  to  Christ  is  a  Christian,  though  he  may 
be  as  yet  in  utter  bewilderment  as  to  the  relation 
of  his  intellect  to  the  various  details  of  Christian 
doctrine. 

There  has  grown  up  around  the  central  truth 
of  Christianity  a  great  body  of  Christian  theology. 
For  myself,  I  am  persuaded  that  he  who  enters 
into  that  personal  relationship  with  Christ  of 
which  I  have  been  speaking  will  find  in  this 
theology,  for  the  most  part,  the  fittest  expression 
of  the  various  truths  which  flow  out  from  or  are 
associated  with  that  central  fact.  Do  not  let  us 
be  guilty  of  the  silly  freak — surely  one  of  the 
silliest  of  which  any  thinking  man  can  be  convicted 
— of  ridiculing  theology.  What  is  theology  ? 
Man's  knowledge  of  God  systematised.     What  is 


40  First  Things  First 

astronomy  ?  Man's  knowledge  of  the  stars 
systematised.  And  why  should  we  not  system- 
atise our  knowledge  of  God  as  well  as  our 
knowledge  of  the  stars  ?  But — and  this  is  the 
point  I  want  to  emphasize — if  this  theology,  or 
any  part  of  it,  is  to  you  an  insuperable  difficulty, 
if  it  is  barring  your  way  to  Christ,  put  it  upon  one 
side  ;  it  will  be  soon  enough  to  deal  with  it  by  and 
by.  Your  sole  concern  now  is  with  Jesus  Christ 
Himself;  resolutely  refuse  to  suffer  anything — 
Bible,  creed,  or  Church — to  come  between  you  and 
Him.  I  have  known  many  a  man  whose  Old 
Testament  has  positively  been  transformed  for  him 
into  an  angel  with  a  drawn  sword  keeping  him 
back  from  the  Tree  of  Life.  May  God  save  you 
from  a  blunder  so  terrible ! 

But  perhaps  you  will  tell  me  there  is  at  least 
one  article  in  the  creed  of  which  a  man  must  be 
sure  if  he  is  to  become  a  Christian,  viz.  the  Divinity 
of  Christ.  Paul's  faith  was  in  the  Son  of  God  ;  "  and 
it  is  just  there,"  says  some  one,  "  that  I  hesitate : 
that  is  my  difficulty."  Only  the  other  day  I 
received  a  letter  from  a  young  man  pressing  this 
very  point.  "  If  only  I  could  believe,"  he  said, 
''  that  Jesus  were  truly  Divine,  I  think  I  could  get 
on.  As  it  is,  there  is  a  deadlock,  and  I  get  no 
further."  I  do  not  think  it  is  right  to  assume  that 
such  cases  are  very  frequent.  There  are  doubtless 
many  to-day  who  question  or  deny  the  Divinity 
of  our  Lord  ;  but  of  these  the  number  who  would, 
were  it  not  for  this  doubt,  trust  in  Christ  as  their 


What  is  it  to  be  a  Christian  ?  41 

Saviour  is,  I  believe,  exceedingly  small.  Still,  be 
they  few  or  many,  they  have  a  right  to  the  help 
they  ask  for. 

Two  or  three  years  ago  an  eminent  theologian 
and  preacher  caused  no  small  stir  in  certain 
orthodox  circles  by  publicly  declaring  that  "  we 
must  not  too  hastily  conclude  that  even  a  belief  in 
Christ's  Divinity  is  essential  to  the  true  Christian"; 
though  he  was  careful  to  add,  what  his  critics  were 
not  always  equally  careful  to  remember,  that  to 
"  the  mature  Christian  "  such  a  belief  is  essential. 
The  statement  was  sharply  condemned  by  many. 
Yet  with  the  four  Gospels  in  our  hands  how  can 
we  deny  the  truth  of  it?  When  Christ  called 
the  twelve  disciples.  He  put  them  through  no 
catechism ;  He  did  not  insist  upon  a  belief 
concerning  Himself,  which  indeed  for  them  then 
would  have  been  a  simple  impossibility.  He  bade 
them,  "  follow  Me  "  ;  He  attached  them  to  Himself, 
till  out  of  that  personal  attachment  there  sprang 
at  last  the  love,  the  devotion,  the  insight  that 
flowered  in  the  deep  mysticism  of  John's  theology, 
the  ethical  thoroughness  of  Peter's  Epistles.  My 
brother,  do  you  feel  your  need  of  what  Christ 
offers  ?  Do  you  believe  that  He  is  able  and 
willing  to  give  it  you  ?  Then  begin  there,  wait 
for  nothing  more.  Out  of  this  smallest  of  seeds 
there  may  grow  a  Christian  life  strong  and 
vigorous.  Go  to  Christ  and  say  unto  Him,  "  O 
Lord,  not  yet  do  I  know  Thee  as  Thou  art.  My 
eyes  are  weak  and  cannot  bear  the  full  blaze  of 


42  First  Things  First 

Thy  light  ;  deal  with  me  as  with  one  of  Thy 
foolish  ones.  Thou  art  wise  and  good  ;  teach  me 
how  I  may  become  as  Thou  art.  I  bow  myself 
to  Thee ;  I  take  upon  me  the  yoke  of  Thy 
commands  ;  I  will  wear  it  day  by  day  till  I  too 
find  the  rest  Thou  hast  promised  to  all  that  come 
to  Thee." 

3.  To  be  a  Christian  is  not  the  same  thing  as 
to  have  once  experienced  the  change  we  call  "  conver- 
sion'.'— I  speak  now  to  quite  a  different  class  of 
persons  ;  and  on  this  point  one  word  must  suffice. 
Are  there  not  many  among  us  to  whom  to  be  a 
Christian  means  to  pass  through  a  short,  sharp, 
decisive  crisis,  which  works  indeed  a  mighty 
transformation  in  the  life,  but  which  ends  with 
itself?  Is  not  this  the  reason  why  in  all  our 
churches  there  are  so  many  unsatisfied  and 
unsatisfactory  Christians  ?  They  have  no  ringing 
gladness  in  their  life,  no  sense  of  mastery  over  sin, 
nothing  but  the  memory  of  a  change  wrought 
long  years  ago  in  the  far-off  past.  It  was  not  so 
that  Paul  conceived  Christianity.  He  experienced 
a  conversion  as  striking,  as  decisive  as  ever 
happened  to  any  man  ;  but  conversion  to  him 
was  only  the  soul's  first  surrender,  to  be  daily 
and  hourly  renewed  through  a  life  of  perfect  de- 
votion to  Christ.  The  fountain  of  Paul's  rejoic- 
ing was  fed  not  only  by  the  memory  of  a  past 
mercy,  but  by  the  experience  of  a  present 
salvation. 

I  call  you  not  to  a  brief,  terminable  transaction 


What  is  it  to  be  a  Christian  ?  43 

with  Christ,  but  to  an  abiding  fellowship.  Christ 
does  not,  if  I  may  use  a  homely  phrase,  set  us  on 
our  feet  and  then  leave  us  to  get  on  as  best  we 
may.  Conversion  is  the  first  point  in  a  series  whose 
number  is  infinity.  We  are  summoned  not  only 
to  one  supreme  act  of  faith,  but  to  a  life  of  faith. 

If  now  you  have  followed  me  thus  far  in  my 
attempt  to  show  what  Christianity  really  is,  there 
ought  to  be  no  difficulty  in  understanding  why 
here,  and  indeed  all  through  the  New  Testament, 
so  much  importance  is  attached  to  "  faith." 
"  What  has  faith  to  do  with  salvation  ?  Why 
does  it  matter  what  a  man  believes  ? "  people 
sometimes  ask  impatiently.  Such  questions  would 
be  impossible  if  those  who  ask  them  would  but 
learn  the  facts.  To  my  mind  "  faith,"  so  far  from 
being  an  unreasonable  condition,  is  the  only 
possible  one.  For  consider :  what  do  we  mean 
by  "  faith  "  ?  To  many  of  us,  I  fear,  the  word  is 
only  a  technical  term  of  the  science  of  theology  ; 
we  have  taken  it  out  of  the  realm  of  common  life 
and  robbed  it  of  all  its  simple  everyday  significance. 
Inextricable  confusion,  apd  worse,  has  been  the 
result.  Faith  is  trust ;  and  the  faith  that  saves  is 
the  same  faith  that  we  all  know  of  and  are 
exercising  every  day — differing  only  in  this  that  it 
is  fixed  on  Christ  and  not  on  man. 

Now  do  we  not  begin  to  understand  the 
reasonableness  of  the  New  Testament's  emphasis 
on  faith  ?     Christianity,  we  have  seen,  is  a  personal 


44  First  Tilings  Fii'st 

relationship,  the  union  of  the  soul  with  Christ.  What 
then  but  trust  can  be  the  basis  of  such  a  union  ? 
What  else  on  earth  save  this  can  knit  two  souls 
in  any  high  and  holy  fellowship  ?  Money  will  not 
do  it ;  ties  of  blood  will  not  do  it  ;  the  marriage  tie 
itself  will  not  do  it,  as  the  newspapers  with  ghastly 
emphasis  every  now  and  again  remind  us.  Love, 
trust — there  is  no  other  cement  for  human  hearts. 
It  is  so  in  religion.  Custom  and  convention  may 
secure  us  to  Christ's  Church.  We  may  read  our 
Bible  and  pray  and  worship  till  we  are  strapped 
hand  and  foot  to  the  outward  forms  of  religion  ;  but 
the  love  of  the  heart,  the  trust  that  is  the  outgoing 
of  the  whole  soul — this  is  the  one  and  only  thing 
that  can  bind  us  to  Christ  Himself. 

And  who  is  it  who  thus  claims  our  trust  and 
love  ?  "  The  life  which  I  now  live  in  the  flesh  I 
live  in  faith,  the  faith  which  is  in  the  Son  of  God  " 
— did  Paul  put  the  full  stop  there  ?  No  ;  listen — 
"  Who  loved  me  and  gave  Himself  up  for  me." 
Christ  seeks  our  love,  but  He  has  first  given  His. 
He  asks  our  trust  ;  but  to  win  it.  He  laid  down 
His  life  for  us.  Is  He  not  the  utterly  loveworthy, 
the  utterly  trustworthy  ?  There  is  a  favourite 
Scottish  picture  that  many  of  you  have  seen, 
"  Charles  Edward  seeking  shelter  in  the  house  of 
an  adherent."  The  humble  Highland  peasants 
gladly  risk  life  and  all  for  the  sake  of  their  loved 
prince.  But  here  the  Prince  lays  down  His  life 
for  the  beggar. 

"  The  Son  of  God  who  loved  me  !  "     You  saw 


What  is  it  to  be  a  Christian  ?  45 

the  sunshine  this  morning  that  came  on  its  long, 
long  journey  to  our  earth.  It  flushed  the  great 
mountain  peaks  ;  it  rolled  vast  billows  of  light 
through  the  deep  valleys  ;  it  brightened  the  busy 
haunts  of  men  ;  it  iTiade  the  old  world  seem  young 
again.  Was  that  all  the  sunshine  did  ?  No  ;  it 
kissed  the  mountain-daisy,  "wee  crimson-tippit 
flower,"  as  it  lifted  its  little  face  to  the  light ;  it 
woke  into  being  the  tiny  insect-life  that  ends  its 
brief  day  with  the  evening  twilight ;  it  stole 
noiselessly  into  the  sick-room  where  the  night- 
watcher  waited  wearily  for  the  day,  and  the  sick 
one  moved  himself  and  murmured,  "  Thank  God, 
morning  has  come  at  last ! " 

"  Son  of  God"  and  yet  "  He  loved  me  and 
gave  Himself  for  me ! "  He  is  creation's  great 
Lord  ;  He  made  the  worlds  ;  He  holds  all  together 
by  the  power  of  His  might  ;  King  of  kings  and 
Lord  of  lords,  and  He  loved  me  and  gave  Him- 
self for  me  I 

All  that  is  behind  His  question  ;  and  this  is 
His  question  :  "  Lovest  thou  Me  ?  "  "  Lovest 
thou  Me  ?  "  "  Lovest  thou  Me  ?  "  What  is  your 
answer  ? 


WHY  OUGHT   I  TO  BE  A  CHRISTIAN? 


Follow  Me:  —Luke  v.  27, 


IV 
WHY  OUGHT  I  TO  BE  A  CHRISTIAN? 

THAT  was  Christ's  call  to  Matthew  ;  it  is 
Christ's  call  to  us.  Why  should  we  obey 
it  ?  Why — to  put  the  question  in  concrete  form — 
ought  I  to  be  a  Christian  ?  To  answer  that 
question  is  the  aim  of  this  address. 

Obviously  the  question  admits  of  many  and 
different  answers.  Need  I  say  I  claim  no  sort  of 
superiority  for  mine  ?  This  only  I  will  say  of  it : 
it  is  my  own,  that  is,  it  is  the  answer  which 
appeals  most  strongly  to  my  own  heart  and 
conscience,  while  at  the  same  time  it  does  full 
justice  to  my  reason.  "  We  speak  that  we  do 
know,  and  testify  that  we  have  seen,"  must  always 
be  the  language  of  a  man  who  would  speak  to 
any  purpose  on  a  subject  like  this.  And  what- 
ever else  is  to  be  said  for  the  answer  which  I  am 
about  to  give  you,  there  is  one  man  at  least  who 
has  found  in  it  reasons  all-sufficient  to  bind  him 
to  the  service  of  Jesus  Christ. 

"  Why  ought  I  to  be  ?i  Christian  ?  "  But  mani- 
£ 


50  First  Things  First 

festly  there  is  a  preliminary  question — "  What  is 
a  Christian  ?  "  As  I  have  dealt  with  this  question 
in  the  previous  address,  there  is  no  need  to  delay 
over  it  here.  One  point  only  let  me  reiterate. 
The  possession  of  a  certain  set  of  more  or  less 
clearly  defined  religious  beliefs  does  not  make  a 
man  a  Christian.  That  has  been  said,  I  know,  a 
thousand  times  ;  but  it  is  needful  to  repeat  it  for 
the  thousand  and  first  time.  The  looseness  of 
thought  which  prevails  on  this  subject,  even 
among  well-instructed  persons,  is  simply  amazing. 
A  man  holds  certain  opinions  on  certain  current 
political  questions,  and  we  call  him  a  Liberal  or  a 
Conservative ;  on  certain  current  social  questions, 
and  we  call  him  a  Socialist  or  an  Individualist. 
And  we  think  we  can  go  on  with  our  labelling  ; 
and  because  he  holds  certain  opinions  on  religious 
matters,  we  call  him  a  Christian.  Men  tell  us 
sometimes  they  have  "  given  up  "  Christianity.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  what  do  they  mean  ?  Merely  this, 
that  once  they  held  certain  opinions  on  a  number 
of  difficult  subjects  of  high  theological  speculation 
— the  creation  of  the  world,  the  inspiration  of  the 
Bible,  the  immortality  of  the  soul — and  that  now 
they  no  longer  hold  those  opinions.  Well,  they 
have  changed  their  minds — that  is  all.  To  those 
of  their  friends  who  are  interested  in  the  history  of 
their  intellectual  development  that  may  be  a  fact 
of  considerable  importance  ;  but  to  speak  of  it  as 
a  "  giving  up "  of  Christianity  is  surely  a  gross 
and    wanton    misuse    of   terms.       Christ     is    not 


Why  ought  I  to  be  a  Christian  ?        5 1 

concerned  about  the  "  views "  we  hold ;  it  was 
something  wholly  different  from  this  on  which 
during  His  life  He  laid  the  emphasis.  The 
Spirit,  He  said,  should  convince  men  of  sin  ;  why? 
"  Because  they  believe  not  in  Me "  /  not,  mark, 
"  because  they  do  not  believe  certain  things  con- 
cerning Me,"  but  "  because  they  believe  not  in 
Me " — because  they  do  not  yield  themselves  to 
Me,  trust  in  Me,  serve  and  follow  Me.  Now,  that 
is  a  relationship  not  primarily  intellectual,  though 
of  course  the  intellect  is  concerned  in  it,  but 
moral  and  spiritual.  And  only  he  who  has  thus 
been  brought  into  this  personal  fellowship  with 
Jesus  Christ  is,  in  the  New  Testament  meaning  of 
the  word,  a  true  Christian.^ 

Now  we  come  back  again  to  the  question 
with  which  we  set  out,  "  Why  ought  I  to  be  a 
Christian  ?  " 

To  answer  the  question,  I  will  ask  you  to 
consider  with  me  one  or  two  simple  statements 
of  fact,  which  I  shall  not  so  much  try  to  prove  as 
to  enforce,  and  then  see  to  what  conclusion  they 
lead  us. 

I .  I  begin  with  this  :  Goodness  is  the  greatest 
thing  in  the  worlds  and  to  seek  after  goodness  is  our 
first  duty  in  life. — Let  me  explain.  Men  have 
sometimes  thought  of  religion  as  a  kind  of 
distinct  entity — a  something  separate  from  all  the 
other  concerns  of  life  to  the  pursuit  of  which  one 

*  See  Mr.  Price  Hughes'  Social  Christianity,  in  which  the  point 
of  this  paragraph  is  put  with  admirable  force  and  clearness. 


52  First  Things  First 

man  might  give  himself  just  as  another  gives 
himself  to  art,  or  literature,  or  politics.  Life  has 
been,  so  to  speak,  mapped  out  into  provinces,  and 
among  the  rest  religion  has  had  its  place.  But 
now  we  are  coming  to  see  that  religion,  instead  of 
being  one  among  many  provinces  of  life,  is  rather 
a  something  which  includes  them  all  ;  and  that, 
instead  of  being  sought  as  a  thing  wholly  apart 
from  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life,  it  is  just  there  or 
nowhere  that  it  is  to  be  attained.  So  that  when, 
e.g.^  the  call  of  Christ  comes  to  a  man  who  has 
chosen  for  himself  a  political  career,  it  does  not 
mean  "  Quit  your  politics,"  but  "  There,  where  you 
are,  serve  and  obey  Jesus  Christ."  It  has  been, 
perhaps,  one  of  the  weaknesses  of  evangelical 
Christianity  that  it  has  not  always  sufficiently 
recognised  this. 

When  therefore  it  is  said  that  goodness  is  the 
principal  thing,  and  that  above  all  else  we  should 
seek  after  goodness,  this  does  not  mean  that  all 
the  other  rightful  ambitions  of  life  are  to  be 
ruthlessly  crushed  under  our  heel,  but  that  they 
are  to  be  kept  in  due  subordination  to  what  must 
ever  be  the  supreme  aim  of  every  true  life — to  do 
what  is  right  in  the  sight  of  God. 

Here,  then,  is  the  truth  I  want  to  emphasize  : 
there  are  many  things  that  are  desirable  ;  there  is 
one  thing  that  is  necessary}     Life  presents  us  with 

*  I  am  indebted  for  this  convenient  distinction  to — if  I  mistake 
not— an  article  by  Mr.  George  St.  Mivart  in  an  old  number  of  the 
Nineteenth  Century. 


Why  ought  I  to  be  a  Christian  ?        53 


many  and  varying  forms  of  greatness.  There  is 
the  greatness  of  wisdom,  the  greatness  of  poHtical 
influence,  the  greatness  of  material  power  ;  but 
high  above  all  other  forms  of  greatness  is  the 
greatness  of  goodness. 

Ordinarily  we  do  not  question  this.      But  there 
is    to-day,    under    certain    circumstances,    a    real 
temptation  to  do  so.     When  the  late    Principal 
Shairp  published  his  little  volume  on   Burns,^  he 
was  very  severely  taken  to  task  by  some  of  his 
critics  for  the  way  in  which   he  had  dealt  with 
some  of   the   moral    shortcomings    of   the    great 
Scottish  poet.     Of  course  I  am  not  going  to  enter 
into  the  controversy  here;    but  my  whole  heart 
goes  with  the  Principal    in  one  sentence  of   his 
reply:    "It  was    needful,"  he    said,  "to  make    a 
strong  protest  against  the  fatal  doctrine  that  men 
of  genius  hold  a  charter  of  exemption  from   the 
obligations  of  the  Divine  law."'     "  Never  let  us 
allow   ourselves,"  said    Dean  Church    once — and 
only  those  who  know  the  extraordinary  breadth 
and  fulness  of  the  speaker's  knowledge  can  fully 
appreciate  the  force  of  his  warning  3—"  never  let 
us  allow  ourselves  the  thought,  which  I  fear  comes 

1  In  the  "  English  Men  of  Letters"  Series. 

2  See  Principal  Shairp  and  his  Friends,  by  Professor  Knight. 

3  "  Dean  Church,  "said  Mr.  John  Morley  once  to  Mr.  Stead,  "is 
the  consummate  flower  of  the  Christian  culture  of  the  England 
that  is  passing  away.  We  shall  never  look  upon  his  like  again. 
The  conditions  have  disappeared  which  alone  rendered  possible  the 
production  of  so  perfect  a  specimen  of  a  gentleman,  a  Churchman, 
and  a  scholar.     He  is  the  finest  and  the  last   type  of  the  Oxford  of 


54  First  Tilings  First 

into   men's   minds,  that  being  clever  and  having 
knowledge  makes  up  for  not  caring  to  be  good." 

Goodness  the  greatest  thing  in  the  world — is  it 
not  so?  What  a  tribute  to  the  supremacy  of 
goodness  is  the  life  of  Jesus  !  "  All  these  things," 
said  the  tempter,  "  will  I  give  Thee,  if  Thou  wilt 
fall  down  and  worship  me."  "  Then  saith  Jesus 
unto  him,  Get  thee  hence,  Satan."  Dares  any 
man  say  that  Jesus  made  a  mistake  ?  That  He 
sacrificed  a  splendid  opportunity  to  a  foolish  dream? 
What  are  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  and  all 
the  glory  of  them  if,  to  make  them  ours,  we  sell 
our  own  souls  ?  What  shall  it  profit  a  man  if  he 
gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  his  own  soul  ?  "  It 
were  better,"  says  John  Henry  Newman  in  a  well- 
known  passage,  "  for  the  sun  and  moon  to  drop  from 
heaven,  for  the  earth  to  fail,  and  for  all  the  many 
millions  on  it  to  die  of  starvation  in  extremest 
agony,  as  far  as  temporal  affliction  goes,  than  that 
one  soul  should  commit  one  single  venial  sin,  should 
tell  one  wilful  untruth,  or  should  steal  one  poor 
farthing  without  excuse."  They  may  call  this  the 
language  of  exaggeration  that  choose  ;  its  essential 
truth  is  beyond  dispute  :  the  value  of  the  moral 
and  spiritual  is  not  to  be  expressed  in  terms  of  the 
material  ;  goodness  is  so  great,  so  supreme,  so 
solitary  in  its  greatness  that  you  can  measure  it  by 
nothing  else,  however  good  or  fair,  that  life  can  show. 

the  past.  Our  universities,  with  their  examinations  and  their 
modern  spirit,  bear  other  fruit." — "Character  Sketch,"  Review  oj 
Reviews,  1891. 


Why  ought  I  to  be  a  Christian  ?        55 

I  make  my  appeal  direct  to  every  young  man's 
conscience  :  is  not  goodness  to  be  preferred  above 
our  chief  joy  ?  Promotion  in  office,  prosperity  in 
business,  honours  and  ribbons  at  the  university — 
God  grant  you  them  all,  if  you  deserve  them  !  yet 
are  they  all  but  as  the  small  dust  of  the  balance 
by  the  side  of  Peter's  supreme  question  "  whether 
it  be  RIGHT  .  .  .  ! "  You  may  not  just  now, 
and  always,  measure  things  so.  A  thousand 
clamorous  tongues  may  seek  to  drown  the  voice 
of  the  better  self  within  you.  But,  believe  me, 
there  will  come  a  time  again,  when  all  these  other 
voices  will  be  hushed,  and  in  that  holy  silence 
of  the  soul  you  will  know  —  know  beyond  all 
doubt,  beyond  all  controversy — that  for  ever  and 
for  ever  is  it  true,  that  better  than  to  be  rich  or 
clever  or  famous,  is  it  to  be  pure  and  true  and 
good. 

To  speak  in  detail  of  this  goodness  after  which 
man  ought  to  seek  would  carry  me  too  far  afield. 
Let  me  notice  two  points  only.  In  the  first  place, 
the  good  we  need  is  not  simply  power  to  perform 
one  or  two  good  deeds,  but — to  put  it  in  a  word 
— character.  It  is  not  merely  the  ingrafting  of  a 
new  slip  into  the  old  tree  that  is  required,  but  the 
infusion  of  a  new  life  that  shall  carry  budding 
vigour  and  vitality  to  every  withered  branch  and 
twig.  And,  secondly,  it  is  our  duty  to  seek  after 
the  highest  goodness  that  is  revealed  to  us  ;  to  be, 
as  we  sometimes  say,  "  as  good  as  we  know,"  or 
rather,  as  we  may  know  if  we  will.     "  I  ought,"  is 


56  First  Things  First 

a  different  word  on  my  lips  from  what  it  is  on  the 
lips  of  an  untutored  savage.  "  It  was  my  duty  to 
have  loved  the  highest "  ;  and  it  is  every  man's 
duty  to  reach  after  the  highest  God  has  placed 
within  his  reach. 

Let  us  pause  a  moment,  and  see  how  far  we 
have  come.  We  began  with  the  question,  "  Why 
ought  I  to  be  a  Christian  ?  "  and  we  have  learned 
this  :  that  goodness  is  the  greatest  thing  in  the 
world — that  man's  first  duty  is  to  seek  after  good- 
ness— the  highest  goodness  that  is  within  his  reach. 
So  far,  I  think,  we  shall  all  have  kept  the  rank. 
May  we  not  now  take  another  step  without  any 
falling  out  of  line  ? 

2.  The  highest  form  of  goodness  of  which  the 
ivorld  knows  is  incarnate  for  us  in  fesus  Christ. — 
This  is  not  a  statement  that  is  likely  now  to  be 
seriously  challenged.  If  it  were  necessary,  I  might 
quote  the  authority  of  great  names, — names,  too, 
that  are  tainted  by  no  suspicion  of  orthodoxy. 
I  might  remind  you  of  John  Stuart  Mill's  oft- 
quoted  saying,  that  "  even  now  it  would  not  be 
easy  even  for  an  unbeliever  to  find  a  better 
translation  of  the  rule  of  virtue  from  the  abstract 
into  the  concrete,  than  to  endeavour  so  to  live 
that  Christ  would  approve  our  life  "  ;  or  of  Matthew 
Arnold's  "Christ  is  an  Absolute;  we  cannot  get 
behind  Him  and  above  Him "  ;  or  of  Goethe's, 
"  the  Divine  Man,  the  Saint,  the  type  and  model 
of  all  men."  But  I  confess  I  do  not  care  for  this 
kind  of  thing  ;  it  comes  to  sound  like  benevolent 


Why  ought  I  to  be  a  Christian  ?        57 


patronage  of  Jesus— of  all  things  the  most  intoler- 
able  to  the   Christian  consciousness.      Besides,  it 
helps  nobody.     Do  we  seriously  believe  that  men 
cannot   be   sure   of  the  utter   goodness  of  Jesus 
unless  first  we  put  into  their  hands  a  certificate 
signed  by  John  Stuart  Mill  and  half  a  dozen  other 
great    men?      This   surely   is   not   a   question   of 
authority;    let   a   man    look   for   himself.       "We 
criticise  every  other  teacher,"  some  one  ^  has  truly 
said,  "we  have  an  intuition  of  Jesus."     Do  you 
remind  me  there  are  some  in  whose  eyes  He  hath 
"  no  form  nor  comeliness  ;  and  when  they  see  Him, 
there  is  no  beauty  that  they  should  desire  Him"? 
Yes  ;  and  there  are  some — the  world  is  so  much 
with  them — who  see  no  beauty  in  the  fair  face  of 
earth  and  sky  and  sea :  "  the  sea  that  bares  her 
bosom  to  the  moon,"  "  the  silence  that  is  in  the 
starry  sky,  the  sleep   that   is   among   the   lonely 
hills" all  this  moves  them  not.      Is  nature,  there- 
fore, not   beautiful?     And  if  across  the  eyes  of 
some  prejudice,  or  ignorance,   or   sin   has  drawn 
its  thick  film  that  so  they  cannot  see  this  Jesus, 
then  because  the  few  are  blinded  shall  the  many 
doubt   their   seeing?     Conviction    in   this    matter 
cometh  not  by  argument,  nor  by  demonstration  of 
logic,  but   by  moral   and   spiritual   instinct.      He 
who  with   his  own  eyes   has  once  seen  the  real 
Jesus  knows  that   this   is  good,  supremely  good, 
just  as  he   knows   that   this   picture  is  beautiful, 
that  that  landscape  is  fair. 

^  Rev.  John  Watson,  M.A. 


58  First  Things  First 

3.  Goodness  the  greatest  thing  in  the  world 
■ — man's  first  duty  to  seek  after  goodness,  the 
highest  goodness  revealed  to  him — that  highest 
goodness  incarnate  for  us  in  Jesus  Christ :  what 
then  ?  /  ought  to  follow  Christy  I  ought  to  be  a 
Christian, 

"  But,"  some  one  may  ask — and  I  do  not  want 
to  rush  to  a  desired  conclusion  by  ignoring  all  diffi- 
culties— "  why  follow  Christ  rather  than  any  other 
great  and  good  man  who  has  ever  lived  ?  "  Well, 
I  might  answer  by  pointing  out  the  difference — 
to  me  an  infinite  one — between  Christ  and  any 
other  great  and  good  man  ;  but  it  will  be  soon 
enough  to  discuss  this  question  as  soon  as  any 
one  seriously  proposes  to  give  to  any  man,  how- 
ever great  and  good,  the  place  in  his  life  which 
Christ  asks  and  receives  in  the  life  of  every  true 
Christian. 

"  But,"  it  may  be  urged  again,  "  why  follow  any 
one  man  at  all  ?  Why  not  be  disciples  of  all  the 
great  and  wise  and  good  ?  Why  this  supremacy 
for  Jesus  Christ  ?  "  And  once  more  I  answer — 
you  will  forgive  me  if  I  speak  now  in  the  first 
person — I  would  ever  be  a  learner  at  the  feet  of 
all  who  have  aught  of  truth  to  teach  to  man.  I 
prize  their  words  none  the  less  because  I  have 
come  to  value  His  the  more.  But  if  you  ask  me 
why  I  give  to  Christ  the  supreme  place  in  my  life 
— a  place  unshared,  unshareable  of  all  besides — I 
will  tell  you  ;  I  can  do  no  other.  I  want  to  do 
what  is  right,  to  love  what  is  good,  and  with  my 


Why  ought  I  to  be  a  Christian  ?        59 

whole  soul  to  seek  after  it.  But,  the  good  which 
I  would^  I  do  not ;  the  evil  which  I  zvould  not,  that 
I  do — there  is  the  great  problem  of  my  life.  How- 
is  it  to  be  solved  ?  I  believe,  nay,  I  know,  the 
only  answer  is  here,  in  following  Christ.  But, 
utterly  unthinkable  to  me  as  it  is  that  I  am 
wrong,  yet  so  entirely  real  and  practical  a  matter 
is  this,  if  you  can  show  me  a  more  excellent  way, 
I  will  take  it,  here  and  now. 

That  brings  me  to  the  deepest  reason  of  all. 
I  am  a  follower  of  Christ's  to-day,  not  only,  not 
chiefly  because  in  His  example  is  the  loftiest 
standard  of  human  duty,  but  because — let  me 
still  speak  in  the  first  person — I  have  found  that 
what  Christ  bids  me  be,  He  helps  me  to  be.  Do 
you  say,  "  So  will  any  great  example  help  us  "  ? 
yes,  but  not  as  Christ  does.  He  makes  his  own 
strength  mine.  There  is  the  ideal,  shining  like 
the  stars,  like  them  too,  distant  ;  but  Christ  walks 
at  my  side,  and  aids  my  stumbling  feet  up  the 
fearful  steep.  What  other,  however  great  and 
good,  can  do  that  for  you  ?  I  think  if  I  could 
have  lived  with  Luther — Luther  the  strong  and 
the  brave — I  might  have  grown  strong  and  brave 
too.  I  think  if  I  could  have  spent  the  livelong 
summer  day  with  "  sweet  St.  Francis  of  Assisi," 
that  pure  and  gentle  spirit  who  "  used  to  call  the 
very  flowers,  sisters,  brothers,"  I  might  have  grown 
pure  and  gentle  too.  But  they  are  dead,  they 
are  gone,  and  the  past  folds  them  in  its  ever- 
thickening  mists  :  but  Christ  lives  !      He  lives  in 


6o  First  Things  First 

them  that   trust   in    Him  ;    He    lives  in  them  to 
make  them  even  as  He  is. 

"  We  cannot  follow  you  there,"  does  some  one 
say  ?  "  This  is  the  cloudland  of  mysticism,  where 
the  feet  can  find  no  solid  ground  to  tread  upon. 
How  can  these  things  be  ?  How  can  Christ  dwell 
in  any  man  ?  "  Yet  I  do  but  speak  the  simplest 
fact  —  a  fact  witnessed  to  in  the  daily  lives  of 
multitudes.  If  you  are  a  Christian,  you  know 
what  all  this  means  ;  if  you  are  not,  you  have  no 
means  of  knowing,  and  therefore,  remember,  no 
right  of  judging.  Yet  than  that  these  things  are 
so,  nothing  is  more  certain. 

My  task  is  done.  Once  more  I  ask — Will  you 
become  a  Christian  ?  Some  of  you  at  least  will 
feel,  I  hope,  the  advantage  of  beginning  where  I 
have  begun.  I  have  tried  to  raise  no  theological 
difficulties  on  the  threshold.  Eternal  punishment, 
the  inspiration  of  the  Bible,  the  creation  of  the 
world — these  matters  can  wait.  If  you  mean  to 
be  a  Christian,  we  can  talk  about  them  by  and 
by  ;  if  you  do  not,  really,  it  is  not  worth  while 
my  discussing  them  with  you.  Two  things  only 
I  ask — Do  you  want  to  do  what  is  right?  Do 
you  want  power  to  do  it?  Then  obey  Christ 
when  He  says,  "  Follow  Me." 

"  Two  things  only "  did  I  say  ?  Have  not 
some  of  us  a  third  want  ?  I  talked  with  a  lady 
once  about  Christ,  and  she  told  me  she  did  not 
feel    she  needed   Him,  she   knew  of  nothing  she 


Why  ought  I  to  be  a  Christian  ?        6 1 

wanted  to  be  saved  from.  I  advised  her  to  read 
again  the  story  of  the  four  Gospels,  to  lay  her 
own  life  alongside  the  perfect  life  that  is  revealed 
there,  and  then  to  see  if  still  she  asked  "  what  lack 
I  yet  ?  "  And  if  any  of  you  to  whom  I  speak  feel 
as  she  felt,  I  do  not  know  that  I  can  say  anything 
better  to  you.  But  there  are  some  of  you  who  can 
never  speak  thus.  "  Nothing  to  be  saved  from  " 
indeed  !  You  have  everything  to  be  saved  from. 
You  too  had  your  dream  of  goodness  once  ;  but 
it  has  faded  long  ago.  Life's  morning  broke  sweet 
and  clear  ;  but  that  is  all  far,  far  away  now — 

"  I  remember,  I  remember 
The  fir-trees  dark  and  high  : 
I  used  to  think  their  slender  tops 
Were  close  against  the  sky. 
It  was  a  childish  ignorance, 
But  now  'tis  httle  joy 
To  know  I'm  farther  off  from  Heaven 
Than  when  I  was  a  boy." 

You  need  no  preacher  to  tell  you  what  sin  is  ; 
it  holds  you  in  its  iron  grip.  If  Christ  is  to  be 
anything  to  you,  He  must  come,  not  first  as  the 
Perfect  Example  to  be  imitated,  but  as  the  Great 
Deliverer  who  will  strike  off  the  chains  and  set  the 
captive  free.  It  is  so  He  comes  ;  He  bends  over 
the  weakest  and  worst  of  us,  and  says,  "  Ye  shall 
receive  power ;  follow  Me."  Follow  Him,  my 
brother,  and  it  shall  be  unto  you  even  according 
to  His  word. 


MR.  GET-r-THE-HUNDRED-AND-LOSE- 
r-THE-SHIRE 


^^  So  Lot  chose  him  all  the  Plain  of  Jot-dan.'" — Gen.  xiii.  1 1. 
^^  And  Esau  sold  his  birthright  tmto  Jacobs — Gen.  xxv.  33. 


MR.  GET-r-THE-HUNDRED-AND-LOSE- 
I'-THE-SHIRE 

AMONG  the  characters  in  John  Bunyan's 
Holy  War,  to  which  Dr.  Whyte  has  just  been 
introducing  us  in  a  series  of  lectures  of  which  it 
is  difficult  to  speak  without  seeming  to  use  the 
language  of  exaggeration,  there  is  one  Mr.  Get-i'- 
the-hundred-and-lose-i'-the-shire.  "  This  man  with 
the  long  name,"  as  Bunyan  truly  enough  calls 
him,  is  introduced  in  this  connection  :  the  princes 
of  the  pit  took  counsel  together  how  they  might 
destroy  the  town  of  Mansoul.  And  when  they 
saw  that  their  only  hope  lay  in  their  being  able  to 
lead  the  townsmen  into  sin,  "  they  fell  to  inventing 
by  what  means  they  might  do  this  thing."  Then 
Lucifer  stood  up  and  spoke.  "  You  know,"  he  said, 
"  Mansoul  is  a  market -town  and  a  town  that 
delights  in  commerce,  what  therefore  if  some  of 
our  Diabolonians  shall  feign  themselves  for  country- 
men, and  shall  go  out  and  bring  to  the  market  of 
Mansoul  some  of  our    wares  to    sell — and  what 

F 


66  First  Things  First 


matter  at  what  rates  they  sell  their  wares,  though 
it  be  but  for  half  the  worth  ?  Now  let  those  that 
thus  shall  trade  in  their  market  be  those  that  are 
witty  and  true  to  us,  and  I  will  lay  my  crown  to 
pawn,  it  will  do.  There  are  two  that  are  come  to 
my  thoughts  already  that  I  think  will  be  arch  at 
this  work,  and  they  are  Mr.  Penny-wise-pound- 
foolish  and  Mr.  Get-i'-the-hundred-and-lose-i'-the- 
shire  ;  nor  is  this  man  with  the  long  name  at  all 
inferior  to  the  other.  What  also  if  you  join  with 
them,  Mr.  Sweet-world  and  Mr.  Present-good  ?  .  .  . 
Let  those,  with  as  many  more,  engage  in  this  busi- 
ness for  us,  and  let  Mansoul  be  taken  up  in  much 
business,  and  let  them  grow  rich  and  full,  and  this 
is  the  way  to  get  ground  of  them." 

Let  us  look  at  this  "  man  with  the  long  name." 
Every  reader  of  the  Pilgrim's  Progress  is  familiar 
with  Bunyan's  gift  of  happy  characterization.  He 
hits  off  a  character  in  a  phrase.  One  stroke  of  his 
inimitable  pencil  and  the  portrait  is  complete.  So 
is  it  here  :  know  this  man's  name  and  you  know 
him.  But  what  is  the  meaning  of  the  remarkable 
name  that  he  bears  ?  Dr.  Whyte's  exposition 
leaves  nothing  to  be  desired.  A  "  shire,"  of  course, 
is  a  county.  "  Hundred  "  is  the  name  of  one  of  the 
old  subdivisions  of  the  English  counties,  so  called 
because  each  was  supposed  to  contain  one  hundred 
free  families.  The  word  still  lingers  in  the  familiar 
"  Chiltern  Hundreds  "  that  meets  us  so  often  in  the 
daily  paper.  In  early  times  the  forest-clad  slopes 
of  the   Chiltern    Hills  were  infested   with   robbers. 


Mr.  Get-i  -the-Httndred  67 

To  put  down  their  depredations,  an  officer  under 
the  Crown  was  appointed  who  bore  the  title 
"  Steward  of  the  Chiltern  Hundreds,"  the 
"  hundreds "  in  this  case  being  three  of  the  sub- 
divisions of  the  county  of  Buckingliamshire.  The 
office,  of  course,  has  long  been  a  sinecure,  but  it 
still  exists,  and  is  used  to  meet  certain  well- 
known  political  exigencies. 

The  meaning  of  the  title  of  my  address  is  now, 
I  hope,  perfectly  clear.  A  hundred  is  but  a  frac- 
tion of  a  shire  ;  therefore,  to  get  in  the  hundred  and 
lose  in  the  shire  means  to  secure  the  less  and  let 
go  the  greater  ;  it  is  to  be  penny-wise  and  pound- 
foolish  ;  it  is  to  sell  one's  birthright  for  a  mess  of 
pottage  ;  it  is  to  win  the  "  corruptible  crown  "  and 
to  miss  "  the  crown  of  glory  that  fadeth  not  away  "  ; 
it  is  to  gain  the  whole  world  and  to  lose  our  own 
soul. 

For  concrete  illustrations  let  us  turn  to  the  two 
Old  Testament  stories  of  Lot  and  Esau. 

Take  first  Lot's  choice  of  Sodom.  A  strife 
had  arisen,  you  remember,  between  the  herdmen 
of  Lot's  cattle  and  the  herdmen  of  Abraham's 
cattle.  Abraham,  with  equal  good  sense  and 
generosity,  proposes  an  immediate  solution  of  the 
difficulty.  "  Let  there  be  no  strife,  I  pray  thee," 
he  said  to  Lot,  "  between  me  and  thee,  and 
between  my  herdmen  and  thy  herdmen  ;  for  we 
are  brethren.  Is  not  the  whole  land  before  thee  ? 
separate  thyself,  I  pray  thee,  from  me :  if  thou 
wilt  take  the  left  hand,  then  I  will  go  to  the  right ; 


68  First  Things  First 

or  if  thou  wilt  take  the  right  hand,  then  I  will  go 
to  the  left.  And  Lot  lifted  up  his  eyes,  and 
beheld  all  the  Plain  of  Jordan,  that  it  was  well 
watered  everywhere  .  .  .  like  the  garden  of  the 
Lord,  like  the  land  of  Egypt,  as  thou  goest  unto 
Zoar."  And  as  Lot  had  his  cattle  to  think  about, 
what  more  could  he  want  than  that  ?  The  plain 
was  well  watered — that  settled  everything  :  "  So 
Lot  chose  him  all  the  Plain  of  Jordan."  Poor 
blind  fool  that  he  was  !  He  saw  the  well-watered 
plain,  and  after  that  he  had  eyes  for  nothing  else. 
But  was  there,  therefore,  nothing  else  to  be  seen  ? 
Listen  :  "  Now  the  men  of  Sodom  were  wicked 
and  sinners  against  the  Lord  exceedingly."  But 
Lot  never  stopped  to  ask  questions  about  that. 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah  might  be  a  moral  dunghill  ; 
but  was  there  not  fat  pasturage  for  his  flocks  and 
herds  ?  He  and  his  wife  and  his  children  might 
drink  in  poison  with  every  breath  they  drew  in 
that  sin-drenched  atmosphere  ;  but  what  of  that  if 
the  cattle  were  well  fed  ?  Passing  strange,  is  it 
not,  that  men  will  not  begin  to  think  of  the 
greater  things  of  life  till  first  its  smaller  gifts  have 
been  struck  from  their  hands  ;  that  they  will  not 
covet  something  better  than  the  well  -  watered 
plain,  till  it  lies  behind  them  a  smoking,  desolate 
waste  ? 

Turn  now  to  the  story  of  Esau,  who  sold,  "for  one 
mess  of  meat "  (as  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  half  scornfully  puts  it^)  his  own  birthright. 
^  xii.  1 6. 


Mr.  Get-i  'the-Htmdred  69 


Now  I  do  not  want  to  deny  that  there  was  anything 
that  was  good  in  the  character  of  Esau.      His  open 
frankness,  his  quick  impulsive  generosity,  his  bold 
impetuosity  of  spirit,  would  naturally  make  him 
popular  with  his  roystering  boon  companions.     I 
think  Esau  was  exactly  the  kind  of  man  that  to- 
day we  call  "  a  jolly  good  fellow."     And  when  we 
think  merely  of  that  side  of  his  character,  we  can 
hardly  be  surprised  that  he  is  so  often  favourably 
contrasted    with    his    sleek,   smooth-tongued,   but 
double-dealing  brother  Jacob.     And  yet  when  we 
come  to  look  well  into  the  heart  of  the  man,  what 
do  we  find  but  one  who  is  the  mere  plaything  of 
his  animal  passions,  ready  to  barter  away  everything 
he  has,  if  only  he  can  satisfy  the  appetite  of  the 
moment  ?     Esau  could  not  see  one  inch   beyond 
the   present.      He  never  stopped  to  ask  himself 
whether  by  gratifying  the  desire  of  to-day  he  was 
not  thereby  forfeiting  a  far  greater  blessing  which 
might  possibly  come  to  him  to-morrow.     The  old 
proverb  says,  "  A  bird  in  the  hand  is  worth  two  in 
the   bush "  ;    yes,  Esau   would  have  said,  twenty 
or  two  hundred — everything  must  go  for  present 
enjoyment.      Self-control  for   the   sake   of  future 
good  was  a  thing  of  which  this  wild,  passionate 
man   never  dreamed.      If  he   comes   in   hot   and 
hungry  from  the  field,  he  must  have  something  tc 
eat,  and  if  he  does  not  get  it  there  and  then  he  i? 
quite  sure  he  is  going  to  die,  and  even  though  the 
price  he  has  to  pay  for  it  be  his  birthright,  the  loss 
of  which  he  will  feel  all  his  life,  nevertheless  the 


70  First  Things  First 

present  craving  gets  the  mastery,  and  the  next 
moment  the  mess  of  pottage  and  the  birthright 
have  changed  hands.  Whenever  the  means  of 
gratifying  passion  was  close  at  hand,  and  the 
lower  self  in  Esau  said,  "  I  want  it,"  self-restraint 
never  moved  a  finger  to  keep  the  two  apart,  let  the 
penalty  be  what  it  might. 

"  What  folly  !  "  you  say,  "  what  blindness  ! 
Did  ever  a  man  in  his  senses  betray  such  stupid 
indifference  to  his  own  best  interests  ?  "  But  stay 
a  moment ;  you  are  pitying  Esau — are  you  quite 
sure  the  devil's  hook  is  not  sticking  in  your  own 
jaws  ?  You  think  that  elder  brother  a  fool  for 
selling  his  birthright  for  a  mess  of  pottage,  when 
ten  minutes'  patience  might  have  got  him  all  he 
wanted  ;  and  you  are  right,  but  I  tell  you  there 
are  some  of  you  who  are  doing  exactly  the  same 
thing  almost  every  day  you  live.  Whenever  a 
man  lets  go  his  hold  on  a  higher,  greater  good,  in 
order  to  snatch  at  a  lower,  he  makes  Lot's  choice 
over  again,  he  repeats  poor  Esau's  stupid  blunder. 
Let  me  point  out  some  of  the  ways  in  which  we 
young  men  are  doing  this  to-day ;  and  for  once,  at 
least,  I  will  follow  apostolic  example,  and  "  use 
great  plainness  of  speech." 

Take  the  question  of  amusements.-^  Sport  in 
itself  is  a  good  thing,  but  loved  as  some  of  you 
are  coming  to  love  it,  it  is  a  mischievous,  a  deadly 
thing.  Every  young  man  should  have  his  favourite 
pastime,  his  cricket  or  football,  or  golf,  or  cycling  ; 

*  Referred  to  again  on  page  227. 


Mr.  Get-i -the- Hundred  71 


but  having  a  favourite  pastime  ought  not  to  mean, 
that  the  only  part  of  the  daily  paper  we  care 
about  is  the  column  of  sporting  intelligence. 
Clearly  it  is  our  duty  to  take  care  of  our  health, 
to  maintain  our  bodily  strength  in  full  vigour; 
but  have  we  not  other  and  higher  duties  too — 
duties  to  our  own  higher  self,  duties  to  our  fellows, 
duties  to  our  God?  And  to  make  amusements 
the  chief  concern  of  our  life,  to  put  the  italics  there, 
is  to  sell  our  birthright  for  a  paltry  mess  of  pottage, 
it  is  to  lose  a  very  big  shire  for  the  sake  of  a  very 
small  hundred. 

Or  take  again  the   question   of  reading,  and  is 
not  pretty  much  the  same  thing  true  ?     There  are 
some  of  you  who  have  not  read  one  serious  book, 
one  book  which  has  cost  you  ten  minutes'  hard 
thinking,  or  added  anything  to  the  stores  of  your 
intellectual  life,  during  all  the  last  twelve  months. 
It  has  all  been  snips  from  the  rag-bag  of  literature, 
the  daily   paper,  the  popular  magazine,  the  light 
novel.       And    as    Ruskin   says,  when   you   might 
have  been  holding  converse  with  the  kings   and 
queens    of  literature,  you   have   been    content   to 
gossip  with  your  housemaid  or  your  stable-boy. 
I  do  not  forget  the   many  whose   days   are   filled 
with  dull,  exacting  toil,  and  who   if  they  read   at 
all,  can   only  do  so  to  find  some  quick  and  easy 
escape  from   the   mill -horse  round  of  daily   toil. 
It  is  not  of  such  as  these  that  I  am  speaking  now  ; 
but  some  of  you  there  are  who  are  so  misusing  the 
opportunities  that  every  day  brings  you,  that  your 


72  First  Things  First 

powers  of  thought  are  becoming  permanently 
weakened,  and  there  is  perhaps  no  time  that  is 
more  utterly  wasted  than  the  time  that  you  spend 
in  reading.  You  are  throwing  away  a  pound  for 
a  very  doubtful  penny  ;  you  are  losing  a  shire  for 
the  sake  of  a  hundred,  that  is  not  worth  the 
having  even  when  you  get  it. 

Perhaps  I  speak  to  some  who  are  just  about  to 
choose  for  themselves  a  business  or  profession. 
Take  care  lest  you  fall  into  the  same  pit  as  Lot. 
Before  you  turn  your  face  to  Sodom  and  Gomorrah 
— to  the  promising  situation  in  London  or  Glasgow 
— learn  about  something  more  than  the  well- 
watered  plain.  There  may  be  a  good  wage  and 
better  prospects,  but  if  they  are  only  to  be  had  at 
the  price  Lot  paid  for  them,  you  had  better  break 
stones  on  the  roadside.  Nobody  will  misunder- 
stand me,  I  hope,  if  I  say  that  there  are  some 
professions  in  life  in  themselves  honourable  enough, 
yet  for  some  so  beset  with  dangers,  that  they  will 
do  well  to  think  not  twice  only,  but  twenty  times 
before  they  embark  in  them.  It  is  not  every 
young  man,  e.g.,  who  ought  to  think  of  becoming 
a  commercial  traveller.  I  am  casting  no  reflections 
on  a  large  and  estimable  body  of  men  ;  but  I 
know  of  what  I  speak,  and  those  who  best  know 
the  peculiar  temptations  of  life  "  on  the  road  "  will 
bear  me  out  when  I  say  that  there  are  many 
young  men,  fitted  perhaps  in  all  other  respects, 
whose  moral  fibre  is  unequal  to  the  strain  which 
such  a  life  puts  upon  it.     Take  care  that  you  do 


Mr,  Get-i -the- Hundred  73 


not  risk  the  shire  for  the  sake  of  the  hundred.  If 
you  make  your  choice  as  Lot  made  his,  you  will 
pay  the  same  penalty.  God  help  us  to  be  wise 
before  the  fiery  hail  of  His  judgment  is  about 
our  ears ! 

And  you  who  are  already  in  business,  are  you 
getting  in   the  hundred  and   losing  in   the  shire? 
What  about  your  advertising,  for  instance  ?      Is  it 
honest  advertising,  or  is  it  what  we  call  "  puffing  "  ? 
You   shopkeepers,  Christ  wants   to  look   at  your 
window-bills  and  your  circulars.      Let  us  spread 
them  out  here  before  Him  in  church,  and  then  sing 
our  hymns  and  offer  our  prayers.     And  as  to  the 
things  you  sell,  would  it  trouble  you  if  you  knew 
that     only    last     night     He    stood     among    your 
customers,  you  served  Him  across  your  counter? 
Are  you  offering  nothing  to  the  least  of  these  His 
brethren   you  would   be  ashamed    to  offer   Him  ? 
I  judge  no  man  ;    let  every  man    judge  himself. 
And  if   neither  Christ  nor  your    own  conscience 
condemn  you,  who  am  I  that  I  should  sit  in  judg- 
ment over  you  ?     But  this   I   say  to  you,  that  if 
your  grocer's  license,  or  your  drink-shop,  or  your 
brewery  shares,  or  your  transactions  on  the  Stock 
Exchange  are  making  you  uneasy,  and  you  are 
trying  to  hush  the  barking  of  conscience  with  this 
sop,  "  There's  money  in  it,  there's  money  in  it," 
then   beware    lest    thy  money  and    thy    business 
and  thou  perish  together,  and  thou  lose  both  the 
hundred  of  the  life  that  now  is,  and  the  shire  of 
that  which  is  to  come. 


74  First  Things  First 

Here,  then,  are  some  of  the  ways  in  which  men 
to-day  are  repeating  the  folly  of  Lot  and  Esau. 
How  may  we  save  ourselves  from  it?  There  are 
two  things  I  want  to  say. 

I.  Think. — "Wherewithal  shall  a  young  man 
cleanse  his  way  ?  "  asks  the  psalmist.  Mark  the 
answer  :  "  By  taking  heed  thereto  according  to  Thy 
word."  Carlyle  summed  up  the  teaching  of 
Goethe  in  this  one  pregnant  word,  Gedenke^  zu 
leben^  "  think,  to  live,"  "  think  about  living."  Is  it 
not  a  word  we  all  need  to  lay  to  heart  ?  "  My 
people  doth  not  consider,"  therefore  God  still  has 
His  controversy  with  us.  We  are  the  mere  children 
of  impulse,  never  stopping  to  think,  to  weigh,  to 
consider.  Down  we  go  on  our  knees  in  the  mud 
before  the  great  goddess  of  "  Getting  on,"  and  no 
man  of  us  stops  to  ask  what  is  the  price  she  inevit- 
ably demands  and  exacts  from  her  worshippers. 
There  lies  the  well-watered  plain,  and  our  choice 
is  made  with  the  stink  of  its  foulness  in  our 
nostrils  even  as  we  make  it.  We  are  hungry,  and 
there  is  the  mess  of  pottage — enough  !  enough ! 
let  the  birthright  go.  Did  you  ever  study  the 
wise  man's  picture  of  the  foolish  youth  going  down 
to  the  chambers  of  death  :  "  He  goeth  as  an  ox 
goeth  to  the  slaughter,  till  a  dart  strike  through  his 
liver  ;  as  a  bird  hasteth  to  the  snare,  and  knoweth 
not  that  it  is  for  his  life  "  ?  Think  !  young  man, 
think  !  For  how,  except  you  "  think  on  your 
ways,"  will  you  ever  "  turn  your  feet  unto  His 
testimonies  "  ? 


Mr,  Get-t  -the-Httndred  75 

2.  Look  at  life  whole. — Learn  to  estimate 
things  at  their  true  worth.  Remember  the  present 
and  immediate  is  not  everything  ;  give  it  its  place, 
but  see  that  it  gets  no  more  than  its  place.  Do 
not  lose  the  shire  to-morrow  for  the  sake  of  the 
hundred  to-day.  Nothing  is  so  difficult  as,  and 
nothing  is  more  important  than,  so  to  learn  the 
right  relative  worth  of  things.  The  present  always 
bulks  large  to  the  eye,  not  because  it  is  large,  but 
just  because  it  is  present.  The  future  seems 
insignificant,  not  because  it  is  really  so,  but 
because  it  is  far  away  and  remote.  A  mountain 
that  is  a  mile  off  does  not  shut  out  so  much  of  the 
sky  as  an  eight-foot  wall  that  is  close  by  your 
side.  Ask  Esau,  when  he  is  not  hungry,  which 
he  values  the  more,  a  mess  of  pottage  or  his  birth- 
right, and  he  will  laugh  at  you.  Ask  him  when 
the  fierce  appetite  has  seized  upon  him,  and  he 
will  say  to  you  as  he  did  to  Jacob,  "  What  profit 
shall  this  birthright  do  to  me  ? "  That  is  the 
temptation  that  assails  us  all,  the  temptation  to 
forget  all  higher,  spiritual  good  in  our  eagerness 
to  snatch  at  the  baubles  and  trifles  that  dangle 
before  our  eyes.  Be  on  your  guard  and  do  not 
weakly  yield  to  every  impulse  of  the  moment. 

There  is  a  poem  that  some  of  us  used  to  read 
in  our  schooldays  of  an  old  man  telling  to  a  child 
the  story  of  some  great  battle  ;  and  ever  and 
again  the  little  maid  stops  him  with  the  question, 
"  But  what  came  of  it  all  at  the  last  ?  "  That  is 
just  the  question  I  want  us  each  to  ask  ourselves  ; 


76  First  Things  First 

if  I  keep  straight  on  in  the  way  I  am  going,  what 
will  come  of  it  at  the  last  ?  "  What  will  ye  do  in 
the  end  thereof?" — it  is  a  prophet's  question; 
would  that  with  a  prophet's  power  I  could  force 
it  home  !  "  In  the  end  thereof,"  when  tendency 
has  hardened  into  fact,  when  causes  have  worked 
their  way  round  to  effects,  when  seed-time  has 
issued  in  harvest — then,  what?  My  brother,  do 
not  go  on  in  the  dark  ;  at  least,  know  what  you 
are  about.  "  There  is  a  way  that  seemeth  right 
unto  a  man,  but  the  end  thereof  are  the  ways  of 
death."  "The  end  thereof" — do  you  ever  think 
of  that  ?  "  He  that  getteth  riches  " — is  that  you  ? 
— "  and  not  by  right " — is  that  you  also  ?  then 
listen — "  shall  leave  them  in  the  midst  of  his  days, 
and  at  his  end  shall  be  a  fool."  "  The  bread  of 
falsehood  is  sweet  to  a  man  " — have  you  learned 
that  ?  then  hear  once  again — ^**  but  afterwards  his 
mouth  shall  be  filled  with  gravel."  I  warn  you, 
there  is  poison  in  that  jewelled  cup  that  sin  has 
put  to  your  lips.  There  is  a  deadly  serpent  coiled 
among  the  flowers  that  strew  the  pathway  of  evil. 
There  is  a  sting  within  the  tempter's  honeyed 
sweets.  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  have  their  well- 
watered  plains,  but  beneath  all  that  smiling  beauty 
there  sleeps  the  dread  volcano  with  its  awful 
powers  of  red  ruin  and  of  death.  All  may  seem 
well  to-day,  for  sin  is  an  arch  deceiver,  but  "  at  the 
last  it  biteth  like  a  serpent,  it  stingeth  like  an 
adder." 

"  Let  me  die  the  death  of  the  righteous,  and 


Mr.  Get-i  -the- Hundred  yj 

let  my  last  end  be  like  his  !  " — do  you  ever  pray 
that  prayer  ?  Then,  like  the  good  Bishop 
Andrewes,  make  it  your  daily  prayer  too,  that  you 
may  be  wise  and  consider  your  latter  end.  So 
shall  it  be  well  with  you  at  the  last. 


THE  MANLINESS  OF  CHRIST 


^^  And  when  they  beheld  the  boldness  of  Peter  and  John  .  . 
they  took  knowledge  of  the?n,  that  they  had  been  with  Jesus.''''- 
Acts  iv.  13. 


VI 

THE  MANLINESS  OF  CHRIST 

TO  those  of  us  who  believe  in  God  and  in  the 
importance  of  putting  our  lives  in  a  right 
relation  to  Him  and  to  His  truth,  there  is  no 
more  painful  fact  than  the  comparative  estrange- 
ment of  the  manhood  of  Europe,  and — though  of 
course  in  a  lesser  degree — of  our  own  country, 
too,  from  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ.  That  such 
estrangement  exists  is,  I  fear,  beyond  dispute.  I 
have  seen  it  stated — I  do  not  know  on  what  author- 
ity— that  two-thirds  of  the  membership  of  Christen- 
dom are  women.  The  estimate  may  or  may  not 
be  correct ;  it  is  certainly  no  misrepresentation  of 
the  facts  as  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  observe 
them.  I  have  noted  carefully  the  judgment  of 
men  far  better  qualified  to  speak  than  I  am ;  I  have 
looked  over  Church  year-books  and  membership 
returns  ;  I  have  narrowly  watched  congregations 
both  from  the  pulpit  and  the  pew  ;  I  have  even 
counted  them  as  they  were  dispersing  after  service, 
and  almost  always  with  the  same  result.  I  do 
not  forget  the   splendid  exceptions  that  are   still 

G 


82  First  Things  First 


happily  to  be  found  in  every  part  of  the  land  ; 
but  I  am  convinced  that  no  one  can  take  an 
impartial  survey  of  any  considerable  part  of  our 
modern  Church  life  without  finding  the  question 
forced  upon  him  at  every  turn  with  painful  mono- 
tony, "  Where  are  the  men  ?  "  It  was  stated  by 
one  of  the  speakers  at  the  last  annual  gathering  ^ 
of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations  of 
Scotland,  that  of  the  members  of  Christian 
families  in  connection  with  our  Churches,  from 
twenty  to  thirty  per  cent  fewer  men  than  women 
join  the  Church  before  the  age  of  twenty.  The 
estrangement  of  the  working  classes  from  the 
Churches  may  perhaps  have  been  over-stated  in 
some  quarters  ;  but  is  it  possible  to  mistake  the 
sad  significance  of  the  question  asked  to-day  on 
every  hand,  "  Why  don't  working  men  go  to 
church  ?  "  Nor  is  non-churchgoing  among  men 
by  any  means  confined  to  any  one  class  of  the 
community,  though  the  great  preponderance  of 
the  labouring  classes  may  easily  justify  the  turn 
which  any  discussion  of  this  problem  usually 
takes.  The  late  James  Macdonell,  e.g.^  used  to 
say  that  of  all  the  journalists  and  men  of  letters 
whom  he  knew  in  London,  there  was  not  one 
who  believed  in  Christianity .^ 

Speaking  generally,  I  do  not  think   this   indi- 
cates  any  deep   or   wide -spread    hostility  to    the 

^  In  1893. 

2  See  the  admirable  life  of  this  brilliant  young  journalist  by  Dr. 
Robertson  Nicoll  of  the  British  Weekly. 


The  Manliness  of  Christ  83 

Churches.  I  am  just  old  enough  to  remember 
the  day  when  fears  were  commonly  expressed  as 
to  the  probable  outcome  of  the  extreme  anti- 
religious  movement  associated  with  the  name  of 
the  late  Charles  Bradlaugh.  The  probability  is, 
as  has  been  more  than  once  pointed  out,  that  the 
secret  of  Mr.  Bradlaugh's  influence  always  lay 
rather  in  his  political  than  in  his  infidel  views. 
Be  that  as  it  may,  now  that  Bradlaugh  and  the 
National  Reformer  are  no  more,  and  Mrs.  Besant 
has  gone  over  to  Theosophy,  and  "  Halls  of 
Science "  all  over  the  land  are  being  either  shut 
up  or  turned  to  different  uses,  the  coarse,  bluster- 
ing Atheism  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago  is 
to-day  a  discredited  force  amongst  us.-^  Nor  is 
it  likely  that  the  militant  type  of  Agnosticism 
represented  by  Professor  Huxley  will  be  ever 
more  than  the  intellectual  fashion  of  the  few. 
No  ;  the  majority  of  non -churchgoers  have  no 
hard  words  to  say  against  Christianity  ;  they  do 
not  attack  it ;  they  do  not  sneer  at  it ;  they 
severely  let  it  alone.  That  which  baffles  us  is 
not  hostility,  but  indifference.  Men  simply  do  not 
care.  Here  on  the  one  hand  are  our  churches, 
our  ministers,  our  vast  and  complex  organisation 
for  bringing  the  Gospel   home  to  the  hearts  and 

^  It  is  a  pleasure  to  find  the  substance  of  what  I  have  here  said 
confirmed  by  Principal  fairbairn  in  his  luminous  essay  on  "The 
Church  and  the  Working  Classes,"  prefixed  to  the  new  edition  of 
his  Religion  in  History  and  in  Modern  Life,  which  I  have  read 
since  the  above  was  written. 


84  First  Things  First 

consciences  of  men,  and  yet  the  only  response 
among  multitudes  which  it  seems  to  evoke  is — 
"  Well,  this  is  no  concern  of  ours  ;  you  go  your 
way,  we  will  go  ours."  The  thought  that  these 
two  ways  should  anywhere  meet  appears  never 
to  enter  their  minds. 

Perhaps  some  one  will  say,  "  This  is  all 
probably  true,  and  it  is  of  no  great  consequence. 
Men  are  not  necessarily  less  religious  because 
they  have  given  up  going  to  church."  One 
eminent  religious  teacher  has  even  gone  so  far  as 
to  say,  "  Many  have  left  the  Church  in  order  to 
be  Christians."  Possibly  ;  but  we  are  quite  ready 
enough  nowadays  to  assume  the  existence  of 
Christianity  outside  the  Churches.  Perhaps  there 
is  less  of  it  than  some  would  have  us  suppose. 
But  however  that  may  be,  and  whatever  may  be 
true  of  individuals  here  and  there,  for  most  of 
us,  we  shall  cease  to  think  of  God  when  we  cease 
to  care  for  the  public  worship  of  God. 

Why  is  it,  then,  that  the  majority  of  men  are 
outside  all  the  Churches  ?  I  have  raised — not 
without  purpose — a  much  larger  question  than  I 
can  attempt  to  answer.  Indeed,  my  answer  will 
be  of  the  most  fractional  character.  I  pass  by 
all  the  matter  usually  adverted  to  in  this  con- 
nection in  order  to  fix  attention  upon  one  point 
not  so  frequently  considered.  It  is  this  :  many 
are  alienated  from  Christianity  because  they  have 
never  realised  that  the  ideal  Christian  life  and  the 
ideal  manly  life  are  one  and  t/te  same  thing.     The 


The  Manliness  of  Christ  85 

indifference  noted  above  is  not  indifference  to 
goodness  —  if  that  were  so  one  might  indeed 
despair — rather  it  is  indifference  to  what  seems 
to  be  only  a  form  of  goodness,  and  that  neither 
the  highest  nor  the  best  worth  cultivating.  Ex- 
plain it  as  we  like,  and  lay  the  blame  where  we 
may,  the  reason  why  scores  of  young  men  hold 
aloof  from  Christianity  is  a  feeling  that  somehow 
or  other  a  profession  of  religion  will  rob  them  of 
something  of  their  true  manliness.  Now,  if  there 
is  one  thing  that  a  young  fellow  hates  more  than 
another  it  is  to  be  thought  weak  and  "womanish." 
He  will  go  a  long  way  sometimes  towards  making 
a  fool  of  himself,  but  he  will  never,  if  he  knows  it, 
do  aught  that  will  lead  his  companions  to  think 
him  "  soft." 

But,  unfortunately,  this  is  the  very  thing  which 
in  the  minds  of  many  is  associated  with  religion. 
Why  is  it  that  our  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tions so  often  touch  but  the  merest  fringe  of  the 
great  constituency  to  which  they  make  their 
appeal  ?  It  is  because,  rightly  or  wrongly,  they 
have  come  to  be  regarded  by  many  as  nurseries 
for  little  Pharisees,  the  last  stronghold  of  effemin- 
acy and  cant.^  And  so  intense  is  his  abhorrence 
of  anything  that  savours  of  sanctimoniousness, 
that  it  has  come  to  pass  that   a  young  man  to- 

^  This  is  not  intended  as  an  expression  of  the  writer's  own 
judgment  on  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations  as  a  whole.  He 
is  only  stating,  without  endorsing,  an  opinion  which  he  knows  to 
be  pretty  widely  held. 


86  First  Things  First 

day  resents  being  called  "  pious  "  almost  as  much 
as  he  would  being  thought  mean  and  shabby. 
Would  there  were  no  ground  in  actual  fact  for 
this  unhappy  misconception  !  Unfortunately,  there 
are  all  too  many  unmanly  Christians.  Everybody 
knows  Sydney  Smith's  three  sexes — men,  women, 
and  clergymen  !  And  I  suppose  we  are  all  familiar 
with  the  picture,  sketched  by  a  hundred  novelists, 
of  the  "  nice  "  young  curate — some  dapper  little 
dandy  with  faultlessly  white  hands  and  pretty 
mincing  ways. 

Yes  ;  but  if  there  are  unmanly  Christians, 
read  your  New  Testament  and  tell  me  if  you  find 
there  an  unmanly  Christ.  Christ  is  the  ideal  of 
religion.  I  preach  not  to  make  you  like  me  or 
any  man,  but  like  Him.  To  make  men  Christ- 
like— that  on  its  practical  side  is  the  whole  aim  of 
Christianity.  And  what  I  want  you  to  see  is  this, 
that  he  who  seeks  to  realise  this  aim  in  his  own 
life  is  taking  the  shortest  possible  road  to  the 
fulfilment  of  all  his  own  best  desires  for  a  high 
and  holy  manhood.  However  the  followers  of 
Christ  may  have  misrepresented  and  wronged 
Him,  it  yet  remains  true  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
is  the  highest  type  of  truest  manliness  our  world 
has  ever  seen.  Therefore,  if  you  would  do  all 
that  may  become  a  man,  if  you  would  be  brave 
and  true,  and  strong  and  tender,  if,  in  Milton's 
magnificent  phrase,  you  would  learn  "  to  hate  the 
cowardice  of  doing  wrong,"  follow  Him. 

And  now,  after  this  long  preamble,  let  me  turn 


The  Manliness  of  Christ  ^^j 

back  to  my  text  and  illustrate  what  I  have  been 
saying  from  the  incident  to  which  it  refers.  This 
is  one  of  the  texts  which  rarely  gets  justice  at  the 
hands  of  those  who  quote  it.  I  have  heard  it  on 
the  lips  of  good  people  hundreds  of  times,  but 
never,  so  far  as  I  remember,  with  any  reference 
to  its  true  significance.  We  pray  for  love,  for 
meekness,  for  holiness,  and  that  so  men  may  take 
knowledge  of  us  that  we  have  been  with  Jesus, 
and  it  is  well  that  we  should  pray  thus.  Never- 
theless, it  was  none  of  these  things  in  the  disciples 
that  reminded  their  enemies  of  Christ.  It  was 
when  they  saw  the  boldness  of  Peter  and  John  that 
they  said  "  they  have  been  with  Jesus," 

Read  the  narrative  in  the  Acts  over  again. 
Peter  and  John  had  been  cast  into  prison  "  be- 
cause they  taught  the  people."  In  the  morning 
they  were  brought  before  the  Sanhedrim.  Mark 
Peter's  answer  to  their  question.  He  will  not 
budge  an  inch  ;  he  bates  not  one  jot  or  tittle  of 
the  lofty  claims  they  had  already  made  for  Christ ; 
he  even  bluntly  charges  his  judges  with  Christ's 
death — "  whom  ye  crucified."  Do  you  wonder 
that  the  court  sat  in  astonishment  at  the  prisoner's 
boldness  ?  Is  not  that  exactly  our  own  feeling  ? 
If  we  had  read  the  story  in  our  morning  paper 
instead  of  the  Bible,  should  we  not  have  said, 
"  Well,  that  was  a  manly,  plucky  thing  to  do  "  ? 

But  what  I  want  you  especially  to  notice  is 
the  explanation  that  the  rulers  give  of  the 
conduct  of  Peter  and  John — they  put  it  all  down 


88  First  Things  First 


to  Jesus :  "  When  they  beheld  the  boldness  of 
Peter  and  John,  they  took  knowledge  of  them 
that  they  had  been  with  Jesus."  I  do  not  suppose 
they  meant  it  exactly  as  a  compliment.  They 
remembered  Jesus  and  they  hated  Him.  Perhaps 
among  the  seventy  there  were  some  who  could 
never  forget  how  once  His  words  like  a  plough- 
share had  ripped  up  the  surface  of  their  lives,  and 
laid  bare  the  rotting  foulness  underneath ;  and 
now  in  these  men's  words  they  seem  to  catch  an 
echo  of  His  own  bold  and  fearless  tones  :  "  Yes," 
they  said  with  a  sneer,  and  a  glance  into  each 
other's  faces,  "  they  have  been  with  Jesus,  and 
this  is  what  has  come  of  it."  But  in  whatever 
sense  we  take  the  words,  this  at  least  is  clear — on 
the  confession  of  the  enemies  of  Christ  themselves, 
being  with  Jesus  had  made  His  disciples  bold. 
Boldness  certainly  is  not  quite  the  same  thing  as 
manliness,  but  if  Christ  can  teach  weak  men 
courage,  is  it  not  possible  also  that  He  may  teach 
them  "  a/l  that  makes  a  man  "  ?  Let  us  turn  for 
a  moment  or  two  to  the  story  of  His  life  and  see 
if  this  be  not  so.  I  will  mention  one  or  two  of  the 
facts  which  illustrate  for  us  the  true  manliness  of 
Christ. 

I.  Take  first  the  point  to  which  reference  has 
already  been  made,  His  moral  courage.  "  We 
know  that  Thou  art  true,"  said  His  enemies,  "  and 
teachest  the  way  of  God  in  truth,  and  carest  not 
for  any  one  :  for  Thou  regardest  not  the  person  of 
men."     It  was  but  the  vain  flattery  of  wicked  men 


The  Manliness  of  Christ  89 

who  sought  to  catch  Him  in  His  talk  ;  yet  none 
knew  better  than  themselves  how  true  their  words 
were.  Neither  in  deed  nor  in  word  did  He  regard 
the  person  of  man.  One  of  the  first  acts  of  His 
public  ministry  was  to  enter  into  the  Temple 
where  the  bargainers  and  money-changers  carried 
on  their  unholy  traffic,  and  with  a  whip  of  small 
cords,  single-handed,  to  lash  them  from  the  house 
of  God.  See  with  what  simple  fearlessness  He 
tells  His  enemies  the  ugly  truth  about  themselves, 
in  the  very  moment  when  they  are  going  about  to 
kill  Him  :  "  Ye  are  of  your  father  the  devil,  and 
the  lusts  of  your  father  it  is  your  will  to  do.  .  .  . 
Ye  have  not  known  God  :  but  I  know  Him  ;  and 
if  I  should  say,  I  know  Him  not,  I  shall  be  like 
unto  you  a  liar."  Or  watch  Him,  again,  in  Pilate's 
judgment  -  hall  ;  what  a  contrast  between  the 
Prisoner,  so  calm  in  the  presence  of  horrible  death, 
so  kingly  even  in  His  humiliation,  and  the  Roman 
governor  flitting  nervously  to  and  fro,  asking 
hurried  questions,  not  knowing  his  own  mind  for 
two  moments  together !  When  Pilate  heard  the 
saying,  "  He  made  himself  the  Son  of  God,"  he  was 
the  more  afraid,  and  entering  again  into  the  palace, 
he  saith  unto  Jesus,  "  Whence  art  thou  ?  "  But 
Jesus  gave  him  no  answer.  "  Speakest  Thou  not 
unto  me  ?  Knowest  Thou  not  that  I  have  power 
to  release  Thee  and  have  power  to  crucify  Thee  ?  " 
"  Thou  couldest  have  no  power  at  all  against  Me, 
except  it  were  given  thee  from  above  :  therefore  he 
that  delivered  Me  unto  thee  hath  the  greater  sin." 


90  First  Things  First 

Tell  me,  young  men,  what  think  ye  of  this 
Christ?  Can  we  make  Him  our  Lord  and  Master  ; 
can  we  serve  and  follow  Him,  and  yet  be  shrinking, 
craven-hearted  cowards  ? 

2.  Note,  further,  Christ's  steadfastness  of  pur- 
pose. "  The  characteristic  of  heroism,"  says 
Emerson,  "  is  persistency.  All  men  have  wander- 
ing impulses,  fits  and  starts  of  generosity.  But 
when  you  have  chosen  your  part,  abide  by  it,  and 
do  not  weakly  try  to  reconcile  yourself  with  the 
world."  Try  Christ's  life  by  that  test  and  see 
what  is  the  result.  "  To  this  end  have  I  been 
born,"  He  said,  "  and  to  this  end  am  I  come  into 
the  world,  that  I  should  bear  witness  unto  the 
truth."  He  knew  for  what  He  lived  ;  He  had 
sighted  the  goal  from  the  beginning ;  His  path  to 
it  lay  straight  as  an  arrow's  flight.  We  read  of 
Him  once  that  His  face  was  "  set  to  go  to 
Jerusalem."  It  is  a  picture  of  His  whole  life. 
One  wonders  that  some  artist,  instead  of  repeating 
over  and  over  again  one  or  two  incidents  in  the 
life  of  our  Saviour,  has  not  thrown  that  wonderful 
scene  on  the  canvas  for  us  :  "  The  Christ,  with 
knitted  brow  and  tightened  lips,  and  far-off  gazing 
eyes,  'steadfastly  setting  His  face  to  go  to  Jeru- 
salem,' and  followed  as  He  pressed  up  the  rocky 
road  from  Jericho  by  that  wondering  group, 
astonished  at  the  rigidity  of  purpose  that  was 
stamped  on  His  features."  ^ 

So  was  it  to  the  very  last.      Humanity  flinched 

^  Dr.  Maclaren. 


TJie  Manliness  of  CJirist  91 

for  a  moment  in  Gethsemane  when  the  hot  iron 
pressed  into  His  flesh  ;  it  was  but  for  a  moment  ; 
follow  Him  on  the  day  of  crucifixion,  from 
Caiaphas  to  Pilate's  judgment-hall,  from  Pilate  to 
Herod,  from  Herod  back  again  to  Pilate,  and  so 
on  to  Calvary,  and  there  is  no  sign  of  wavering  or 
irresolution,  none  even  of  impatience  or  murmuring. 
3.  And  yet,  perhaps,  we  never  truly  feel  how 
nobly  strong  Christ  was  until  we  have  seen  how 
in  Him  strength  united  with  the  most  wonderfully 
delicate  refinement  of  feeling  and  perfection  of 
sympathy.  What  "  patience  and  abnegation  of 
self  and  devotion  to  others  "  !  Even  though  we  do 
not  go  beyond  the  few  hours  before  His  death, 
what  tender  thoughtfulness,  what  self-forgetting 
love  !  "  Whom  seek  ye  ?  "  He  said  to  His  enemies, 
as  they  came  to  take  Him  by  the  brook  Kedron. 
"  Jesus  of  Nazareth."  "  I  told  you  that  I  am  He  : 
but  if  ye  seek  Me  " — and  then  He  turned  to  the 
little  band  of  frightened  men  at  His  side — "  let 
these  go  their  way."  Again,  as  He  trod  the  Via 
Dolorosa,  and  faithful  women  followed  Him, 
shedding  hot  tears  of  helpless  grief,  it  was  not 
for  Himself  that  He  would  have  them  mourn  : 
"  Daughters  of  Jerusalem,  weep  not  for  Me,  but 
for  yourselves  and  your  children."  Even  amid 
the  terrible  and  unimaginable  experiences  of  the 
cross.  His  thought  is  not  of  self,  but  of  others  : 
"  When  Jesus  saw  His  mother  and  the  disciple 
standing  by  whom  He  loved,  He  saith  unto  His 
mother,  Woman,  behold  thy  son  !   Then  saith  He 


92  First  Things  First 

to  the  disciple,  Behold  thy  mother."  And,  so 
wondrous  is  that  love,  it  gathers  within  its  mighty 
sweep  the  mother  that  bare  Him  and  the  men 
that  murdered  Him,  and  He  prays,  "  Father,  for- 
give them  :   for  they  know  not  what  they  do." 

Christ  Jesus  is  the  perfect  Man  ;  for  true 
manliness  can  stoop  as  well  as  soar  ;  it  knows  how 
to  be  gentle  and  unresisting,  and  how  to  be  bold 
and  self-assertive  ;  it  can  forgive  and  forbear,  as 
it  can  also  be  angry  and  condemn.  Tennyson 
sings  of  "  that  gentleness  which,  when  it  weds  with 
manhood,  makes  a  man."  "  My  knights,"  says 
the  noble  Arthur,  "  are  sworn  to  vows  of  utter 
hardihood,  utter  gentleness."  And  where  do  that 
utter  hardihood  and  utter  gentleness  meet  and 
blend  as  in  the  life  of  Jesus  ? 

"  Thou  seem'st  both  human  and  divine, 
The  highest,  holiest  manhood  Thou." 

And  shall  we  say — we  young  men — that  to 
serve  this  Man  is  to  rob  us  of  aught  of  our 
manhood  ?  Rather  may  we  not  be  sure  that  he 
who  will  yield  himself  to  this  Christ  to  love  and 
follow  Him,  shall  find  that  there  is  no  stronger 
power  under  heaven 

"  Not  only  to  keep  down  the  base  in  man, 
But  to  teach  high  thought,  and  amiable  words, 
And  courtHness,  and  the  desire  of  fmie. 
And  love  of  truth,  and  all  that  makes  a  man  "  ? 

Have  I  not  said  enough  ?  Do  you  still  think 
that  to  be  "  pious  "  is  to  be  weak,  that  to  be  "  good" 


The  Manliness  of  Christ  93 

is  to  be  goody-goody,  to  be  "  saintly "  is  to  be 
sanctimonious  ?  Then  turn  from  the  Gospels  for 
a  moment,  and  take  down  your  histories  and 
biographies  from  the  bookshelf.  "  We  Germans," 
said  Prince  Bismarck  once  in  a  characteristic  epi- 
gram, "  fear  God,  and  nothing  else  in  the  world." 
And  I  venture  to  affirm  that  you  will  find  the 
most  splendid  examples  of  simple  fearlessness  and 
heroic  self-devotion  among  those  who  have  counted 
it  their  chiefest  joy  to  call  Christ  Jesus  Lord. 
Look  at  Peter ;  but  yesterday  he  turned  pale  at 
the  jibes  of  a  saucy  servant-maid  ;  now  he  stands 
before  the  Sanhedrim,  and  beards  the  whole  seventy 
of  them,  without  even  a  thought  that  he  is  doing 
a  big  thing.  It  was  by  the  grave  of  John  Knox 
that  the  Earl  of  Morton  stood  when  he  said,  "  He 
lies  there  who  never  feared  the  face  of  man." 
"  Play  the  man.  Master  Ridley,"  cried  honest  Hugh 
Latimer  as  the  flames  leapt  about  him,  "  we  shall 
this  day  light  such  a  candle,  by  God's  grace,  in 
England  as  I  trust  shall  never  be  put  out."  Who 
has  not  cried  over  the  story  of  John  Brown,  the 
abolitionist  martyr,  kissing  the  little  black  babe  as 
it  lay  in  its  mother's  arms,  on  his  way  to  the 
scaffold,  then  mounting  the  steps  to  die  with  a 
thanksgiving  on  his  lips  that  he  was  counted 
worthy  to  suffer  in  such  a  cause.-^  The  time 
would  fail  me  to  tell  of  Havelock  falling  amid  the 
agonies  of  the  Indian  Mutiny  ;  of  Livingstone  and 

^  Emerson  used  to  say  that  his  judgment  on  any  man  depended 
on  that  man's  judgment  on  John  Brown  of  Harper's  Ferry. 


94  First  Things  First 

Mackay,  pouring  out  the  precious  treasure  of  their 
Hves  Hke  water  on  the  burning  wastes  of  Africa  ; 
of  Gordon,  meeting  death  with  unblanched  cheek 
in  the  fastnesses  of  far-away  Khartoum.  And  if 
these  "  subdued  kingdoms,  wrought  righteousness, 
obtained  promises,  stopped  the  mouths  of  Hons, 
quenched  the  power  of  fire,"  with  them  also  was 
it  not  "  through  faith  " — faith  in  Christ  as  Lord  ? 
Do  not  all  their  lives  invite  us  to  take  know- 
ledge of  them  that  they  too  have  been  with 
Jesus  ? 

We  need  such  men  to-day  ;  nay,  rather,  may  I 
not  say,  such  men  we  want  to  be  ?  And  remem- 
ber— to  quote  Emerson  once  more — though 
"  times  of  heroism  are  generally  times  of  terror, 
yet  the  day  never  shines  in  which  that  element 
may  not  work."  Circumstances  have  changed  ; 
we  do  not  now  "  run  against  an  axe  at  the  first 
step  out  of  the  beaten  track  of  opinion.  But 
whoso  is  heroic  will  always  find  crises  to  try  his 
edge." 

This  word  above  all  let  us  lay  to  heart — all 
that  Peter  and  John  gained  by  communion  and 
fellowship  with  Christ  we  may  gain  too.  For — 
to  say  over  again  what  I  have  so  often  said 
before — Christ  enables  us  to  be  what  He  bids  us 
be,  what  He  shows  us  we  ought  to  be.  That  is 
why  He  is  so  much  more  than  an  example. 
Gordon  can  give  me  an  example  of  true  bravery : 
Gordon  cannot  make  me  brave.  Livingstone  and 
Mackay  can  show    me  what  self-sacrifice    really 


The  Manliness  of  CJuHst  95 

means  :  Livingstone  and  Mackay  cannot  cast  out 
the  devil  of  selfishness  from  within  me. 

"  Lives  of  great  men  all  remind  us 

We  can  make  our  lives  sublime  " — 

Yes,  yes  ;  but  they  can  stretch  out  no  strong  hand 
to  lift  us  to  their  own  glittering  heights.  And  if 
the  Gospel  can  only  tell  us  of  a  perfect  example 
to  be  copied,  then  for  ninety-nine  out  of  every 
hundred  of  us  it  can  be  no  Gospel,  no  "  good 
news  "  at  all.  If  it  puts  before  us  the  life  of  the 
human  Jesus  and  says,  "  Imitate  that,"  and  after 
that  has  no  more  that  it  can  do,  then  is  our  last 
case  worse  almost  than  the  first  ;  our  ideal  is 
heightened  immeasurably,  our  power  remains  what 
it  was.  But,  thank  God,  He  who  is  our  example 
is  also  our  new  life.  Christ  is  not  only  there, 
without  me,  as  pattern  ;  He  is  also  here,  within 
me,  as  power.  Name  your  heroes  in  literature 
and  history  ;  there  is  not  one  of  them  who  can 
share  his  own  powers  with  you.  Christ  can  and 
does.  We  may  live  in  Him  and  He  in  us,  and  all 
the  forces  that  wrought  in  Him  may  work  in  our 
lives  too.  Young  men,  there  is  but  one  source  of 
abiding  strength  ;  it  is  here — "  Be  strengthened  in 
the  Lord  "  /  will  you  seek  it  ? 


TEMPTATION 


H 


^^  Now  the  se7-pent  was  more  subtil  than  any  beast  of  the 
yield  which  the  Lord  God  had  made.  And  he  said  unto  the  woman, 
Yea,  hath  God  said.  Ye  shall  not  eat  of  any  tree  of  the  garden  ?  And 
the  woman  said  unto  the  serpent.  Of  the  fruit  of  the  trees  of  the  garden 
%ve  may  eat :  but  of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  which  is  in  the  midst  of 
the  garden,  God  hath  said.  Ye  shall  not  eat  of  it,  neither  shad  ye 
touch  it,  lest  ye  die.  And  the  serpent  said  unto  the  woman,  Ye  shall 
not  surely  die :  for  God  doth  know  that  in  the  day  ye  eat  thereof,  then 
your  eves  shall  be  opened,  and  ye  shall  be  as  God,  knowing  good  and 
^z///."— Gen.  iii.  1-5. 


VII 

TEMPTATION! 

MY  subject  is  Temptation.  Is  it  not  a  signi- 
ficant fact  that  this  is  one  of  the  first  things 
that  meets  us  in  the  Bible  ?  No  sooner  does  God's 
word  begin  to  speak  of  man  than  it  has  something 
to  say  of  temptation.  Read  of  him  and  you  read 
of  it.  "  Yea,  hath  God  said,  Ye  shall  not  eat  of 
any  tree  of  the  garden  ?  "  There,  before  you  have 
reached  the  bottom  of  the  first  page  of  man's 
history,  there  it  is — temptation. 

'  Temptation  is  a  universal  fact  in  life.  There 
are  subjects  of  which  the  preacher  must  speak 
that  lie  wholly  outside  the  life  of  some  ;  there  are 
experiences  with  which  he  must  seek-to  deal  that 
to  some  are  wholly  foreign.  It  is  necessarily 
so  ;  every  sermon  is  not  for  everybody.  But 
when  I  speak  of  temptation,  I  miss  nobody.  No 
two  faces  are  exactly  alike  ;  and  our  lives  are  as 
individual    as  our  faces.      But   be  the  differences 

1  I  am  indebted  for  some  suggestions  on  this  subject  to  an  admir- 
able address  by  Professor  Drummond. 


lOO  First  Things  First 

that  separate  us  what  they  may,  we  are  alike  in 
this,  we  are  all  tempted.  Temptation,  like  sorrow 
and  pain  and  death,  is  one  of  the  great  common- 
places of  our  life. 

True,  our  temptations  are  not  all  the  same  ; 
for  temptation  is  not  only  a  universal  thing,  it  is 
an  individual  thing.  It  marks  a  difference  in  lives 
that  to  all  outward  seeming  are  one.  The  wife 
has  her  temptations,  and  the  husband  his.  Children 
of  the  same  parents,  living  under  the  same  roof- 
tree,  moulded  by  the  same  influences,  have  yet 
each  their  own  individual  life -history.  To  some 
the  tempter  comes  as  a  strong  man  armed,  laying 
rough  and  violent  hands  upon  us  ;  to  some  as  an 
angel  of  light,  whispering  honeyed  words  of  peace. 
To  some  he  is,  in  the  Apostle's  strong  phrase, 
"  as  a  roaring  lion  seeking  whom  he  may  devour  "  ; 
more  often  he  comes  as  the  subtle  serpent,  first 
fascinating  us  with  its  glittering  eye,  and  then 
slowly  winding  its  slimy  length,  coil  after  coil, 
about  our  life.  Yes  ;  some  are  tempted  in  one 
way  and  some  in  another,  but  nobody  escapes.  To- 
day I  may  be  shielded  when  you  are  exposed  ;  to- 
morrow will  redress  the  balance.  For,  here  at 
least,  there  are  no  privileged  classes.  Temptation 
is  no  respecter  of  person.  Pay  down  what  ransom- 
money  you  will,  there  is  no  buying  yourself  off. 
You  may  be  rich  ;  but  for  every  door  that  wealth 
shuts  in  the  face  of  temptation,  it  opens  another, 
often  two.  You  may  be  a  student  living  among 
your  books,  with  the  thoughts  of  the  wisest  and  best 


Tempt  atio7i  loi 


as  your  companions  every  day,  and  yet  this  very 
thing  may  prove  to  you,  as  it  has  to  many  before 
you,  the  snare  of  intellectual  selfishness,  and  light 
from  heaven  may  be  the  light  that  leads  astray. 
You  may  become  a  minister  and  think  that  there,  at 
least,  is  the  way  of  escape  ;  but  I  tell  you  that  the 
swifter  and  the  deadlier  will  be  the  hail  of  the 
shafts  of  the  Evil  One  upon  you.  You  may  even 
refuse  to  run  the  gauntlet  of  life  :  you  may  flee 
into  the  wilderness,  and  seek  to  escape  from  life 
altogether  ;  yet  even  there  temptation  will  find  you 
out.  I  have  read  of  St.  Anthony,  how  that  when 
his  wild  gay  life  in  Alexandria  was  checked  by  his 
conversion,  he  turned  his  back  upon  the  city,  and 
sought,  for  safety,  the  solitude  of  the  desert ;  but 
he  soon  returned.  The  temptations  of  the  city 
may  be  bad,  he  said ;  the  temptations  of  the 
hermit's  cell  in  the  wilderness  are  worse.  No  ; 
there  is  no  escape.  It  is  the  testimony  of  the 
best  and  holiest  of  men  :  "  the  life  of  man  upon 
earth  is  a  life  of  temptation."  Says  Bunyan  in  his 
own  quaint  phrase,  "  The  devil  did  not  play  in 
tempting  of  me."  Says  the  saintly  Thomas  a 
Kempis,  "  There  is  no  order  so  holy,  nor  place 
so  secret,  as  that  thjere  be  not  temptations  in  it." 
Even  an  Apostle  declares,  "  When  I  would  do  good, 
evil  is  present  with  me."  And  the  Perfect  Life 
was  a  tempted  life,  tempted  perhaps  as  some  of  us 
have  never  realised.  We  speak  of  the  temptation 
in  the  wilderness  as  if  the  struggle  ended  with  the 
forty  days.      It  was  not  so  that  Jesus  thought  of 


I02  First  Things  First 


His  life.  "  Ye  are  they,"  He  said  to  His  disciples, 
"  which  have  continued  with  Me  in  My  temptations." 
Yet  the  disciples  were  not  with  Jesus  in  the  wil- 
derness, and  when  these  words  were  spoken 
Gethsemane  was  still  before  Him.  Christ  looks  at 
His  life  that  lay  between  the  wilderness  and  the 
garden,  and  He  calls  it  "  My  temptations."  The 
great  Californian  Observatory  is  built  thousands  of 
feet  above  the  sea,  and  the  room  in  which  the 
observer  works  rests  on  long  stone  piers  sunk  to  a 
great  depth  into  the  earth,  in  order  to  prevent  any 
vibrations  which  might  vitiate  the  observations  and 
calculations  of  the  worker.  But  if  there  be  any 
such  spot  in  our  moral  world,  above  the  shock  and 
tremor  of  our  life,  I  do  not  know  where  it  is  to 
be  found  ;  I  know  none  who  dwell  there.  Do  you 
ask  why  this  is  so  ?  Thomas  a  Kempis  shall  tell 
us.  "  There  is  no  man,"  he  says,  "  that  is  altogether 
free  from  temptation  whilst  he  liveth  on  earth  ; 
for  tJie  root  tJiereof  is  in  ourselves!'  And  a  man 
will  escape  from  temptation  when,  and  only  when 
he  is  able  to  escape  from  himself. 

If  any  one  wishes  to  go  further  into  the  "  why  and 
wherefore"  of  temptation,  I  cannot  now  follow  him. 
Why,  if  God  is  good  and  almighty,  does  evil  exist  ? 
How  came  the  serpent  in  the  garden  ?  This  is  a 
question  I  cannot  discuss.  For  myself  I  am  con- 
tent to  take  things  as  I  find  them,  and  to  believe 
that  it  is  best  that  they  should  be  so.  There  are, 
1  know,  certain  wise  ones  who  would  fain  persuade 
us  that  had  it  only   been   granted   unto  them,  the 


Temptation  \o\ 


wise  ones,  to  have  had  a  hand  in  the  creation  of 
the  world,  things  might  have  been  much  better 
arranged.  I  doubt  it.  A  well-known  novelist 
was  once  discussing  a  kindred  problem  with  a 
friend  of  mine,  when  he  summed  up  his  view  of  the 
case  thus  :  "  Well,  for  my  part,"  said  he,  "  I  back  the 
engineer  against  the  stoker."  And  so  do  I, — with 
apologies,  if  need  be,  for  the  unconventional  phrase- 
ology. I  believe  that  He  who  planned  and  made  the 
world,  the  Divine  "  Engineer,"  knew  best  what  was 
good  for  it, — better  than  we  who  live  in  it,  "  work  " 
it,  are,  so  to  speak,  the  "  stokers  "  of  it.  But  be  that 
as  it  may,  temptation  exists.  And  he  is  the  wiser 
man,  not  who  seeks  by  puny  premiss  and  syllogism 
to  demonstrate  that  it  ought  never  to  have  been, 
but  who  frankly  accepts  the  fact,  and  manfully 
seeks  to  shape  his  life  accordingly. 

Let  me  remind  you,  then, — and  remember  I  am 
dealing  with  the  question  wholly  from  the  practical 
point  of  view, — that  it  is  given  unto  us  by  the 
power  of  a  Divine  alchemy  to  turn  our  greatest 
temptations  into  our  greatest  blessings.  "  The 
greatest  of  all  temptations,"  said  an  old  Puritan 
divine,  "  is  to  be  without  any."  What  did  he 
mean  ?  This,  that  if  it  were  possible  for  us  to 
make  our  bed  of  roses,  to  lie  all  our  days  "  in  the 
lilies  of  life  ; "  that  if  it  were  always  fair  weather 
and  blue  sky,  and  wind  and  tide  we/e  always  with 
us,  no  worse  thing  could  befall  us.  If  God  had 
so  ordered  it  that  it  cost  us  much  to  do  wrong  and 
nothing  to  do  right,  whence  would  come  the  stuff 


ro4  First  Things  First 

out  of  which  true  manhood  is  made  ?  How  are 
the  sinews  of  the  soul  to  grow  and  harden  in 
a  long  Italian  summer  of  unbroken  ease  and  idle 
calm  ?  We  look  at  temptation  on  the  one  side, 
land  we  see  only  possible  sin  and  shame  and  dis- 
'grace.  But  now  look  at  it  on  the  other  side,  and 
a  wholly  new  set  of  possibilities  come  into  view  : 
the  eye  quickened,  the  nerve  steadied,  the  whole  soul 
braced  and  strengthened.  Temptation  is  God's 
great  factory  wherein  He  makes  men  and  women. 
We  all  know  what  is  meant  by  atmospheric 
pressure.  That  pressure  amounts,  roughly  speak- 
ing, to  fifteen  pounds  to  the  square  inch  ;  so  that 
a  full-grown  man  sustains  a  pressure,  acting,  of 
course,  equally  in  all  directions,  of  not  less  than 
fourteen  tons.  Now  watch  the  little  lark  as  it 
rises  higher  and  higher  till  it  is  lost  in  the  blue, 
"  a  sightless  song  "  ;  the  atmosphere  that  presses  at 
every  point  of  its  tiny  body  is  its  stay  ;  without  it, 
it  would  fall  helpless  ;  borne  up  upon  it  it  is  able 
to  soar  to  the  very  gateways  of  the  morn.  Is  it 
not  a  parable  of  our  life?  We  are  compassed 
about  with  temptations,  yet  may  we  make  of  them 
stepping  stones  to  higher  things. 

"  Why  comes  temptation,  but  for  man  to  meet 
And  master,  and  make  crouch  beneath  his  feet, 
And  so  be  pedestalled  in  triumph?"  ^ 

"  Temptations,"  says  Bunyan,  "  when  we  meet 
them  at  first   are  as    the  lion   that  roared    upon 

^  Browning. 


Te77iptation  105 


Samson  ;  but  if  we  overcome  them,  the  next  time 
we  see  them  we  shall  find  a  nest  of  honey  within 
them."  So  we  begin  to  understand  that  hard 
saying :  "  Count  it  all  joy  when  ye  fall  into 
divers  temptations." 

But  let  no  man  twist  this  into  the  devil's 
doctrine  that  therefore  we  may  play  the  part  of 
tempter  and  it  will  not  matter.  Temptations 
must  indeed  come,  but  woe,  Christ's  woe,  unto 
that  man  by  whom  they  come  !  That  is  a  word 
that  is  never  out  of  season,  especially  for  you  who 
live  in  a  great  city.  Never  a  week,  never  a  day 
passes  but  some  young  man  leaves  his  village 
home  for  the  big  town.  Did  you  ever  think  of 
this,  that  perhaps  those  who  will  influence  him 
most  are  you  amongst  whom  his  first  friendships 
or  companionships  are  formed  ?  What  is  that 
influence  going  to  be  ?  Will  you  drag  some  fresh 
young  life  through  the  slime  of  your  own  sin  ? 
Will  you  not  rather,  by  God's  grace,  twine  your 
strength  about  its  weakness  and  hold  it  up  ? 
There  are  two  in  our  life  who  are  contending  for 
the  mastery.  The  one  we  call  "  Tempter  "  ;  the 
other  we  call  "  Saviour."  On  whose  side  do  you 
mean  to  be?  I  tell  you  it  were  better  for  you 
that  you  had  never  been  born  than  that  some  day 
some  poor,  feeble,  shambling  wretch  should  lay  a 
trembling  hand  upon  your  shoulder  and  hiss  in  your 
ear,  "  I  am  damned,  and  you  are  to  thank  for  it  !  " 

I  have  said  that  our  temptations  may  prove  a 


io6  First  Things  First 


blessing  to  us  ;  but  that,  of  course,  depends  on 
what  we  do  with  them.  Let  me  add  a  few  words, 
therefore,  on  overcoming  temptation. 

I.  Will  you  understand  me  when  I  say  that 
there  are  times  when  it  is  best  not  to  fight  but  to 
run  away  ?  "  Resist  the  devil,  and  he  will  flee 
from  you."  Undoubtedly,  but  sometimes,  if  you 
are  a  wise  man,  like  Joseph  from  the  presence  of 
Potiphar's  wife,  you  will  do  all  the  "  fleeing " 
yourself,  and  leave  the  devil  in  possession  of  the 
field.  That  may  not  sound  very  heroic  counsel, 
but  under  certain  circumstances  it  is,  I  am  per- 
suaded, the  best.  If  a  young  man  is  bitten  with 
the  betting  and  gambling  mania,  he  will  not,  unless 
he  be  a  fool,  run  into  temptation  hoping  to 
fight  his  way  through  it ;  he  will  keep  out  of 
harm's  way,  and  give  it  as  wide  a  berth  as  he  can. 
If  drink  be  his  foe,  he  will  not  idly  risk  a  fall  ; 
he  will  take  care  not  to  go  where  the  drink  is  ; 
and  if  an  invitation  comes  to  be  one  of  a  party 
where  the  cup — for  him  the  cup  of  death — is 
certain  to  be  passed  round,  then  if  he  be  a  wise 
man  he  will  contrive  somehow  to  decline.  Do 
not  say  this  is  cowardice  ;  it  is  simply  prudence. 
Where  the  stakes  are  life  and  death,  a  man 
should  play  only  when  he  must.  "  Enter  not 
into  the  path  of  the  wicked,  and  go  not  in  the 
way  of  evil  men.  Avoid  it,  pass  not  by  it,  turn 
from  it  and  pass  away."  To  overcome  some 
temptations,  that  is  at  once  the  simplest  and  the 
safest  way. 


Temptation  107 


2.  Resist  the  beginnings  of  evii. — Let  us  turn 
once  more  to  Thomas  a  Kempis,  that  so  great 
master  in  the  deep  things  of  the  spirit.  This  is 
how  he  analyses  temptation  :  "  First  there  cometh 
to  the  mind  a  bare  thought  of  evil,  then  a  strong 
imagination  thereof,  afterwards  delight  and  evil 
emotion,  and  then  consent."  Note  the  various 
steps  :  first,  a  bare  thought  of  evil,  then  a  strong 
imagination  thereof,  then  delight,  and  finally 
consent.  First  "  a  bare  thought  of  evil  "  ;  that  is 
not  sinful,  that  is  simply  to  be  tempted,  and  to  be 
tempted  is  not  to  sin.  It  is  when  the  "  bare 
thought "  passes  into  the  "  strong  imagination  " 
that  the  danger  begins.  "  Our  great  security 
against  sin,"  says  a  great  student  of  human 
nature,^  "lies  in  being  shocked  at  it."  But  when 
we  allow  our  mind  to  hover  about  the  forbidden 
thing,  and  our  imagination  to  picture  it  until  we 
grow  accustomed  to  the  thought  of  it,  we  are 
breaking  down  our  first  and  strongest  safeguard 
against  evil.  That  "  bare  thought "  of  sin,  young 
man,  rid  your  mind  of  its  presence.  Trifle  with 
it,  and  before  you  know  it  you  may  be  over  the 
precipice  !  Watch  the  beginnings  of  evil.  Resist 
the  enemy  "  at  the  very  gate,  on  his  first  knock-  ;;  . 
ing."2      Afterwards  it  may  be  too  late.  "''  ' 

And   do   not   forget  that  every  victory   means 

added    strength    for    further    conquest.      We    are 

familiar    enough   with    the    opposite    side  of    the 

truth  ;    we  know   how   evil    waxes  stronger    with 

^  J.  II.  Newman.  -  Thomas  a  Kempis. 


io8  First  Things  First 


every  triumph.  "  Thou  shalt  deny  Me  thrice " — 
thrice,  not  once  only,  for  Jesus  knew  sin's  terrible 
cumulative  power.  Yet  that  is  only  half  the 
truth.  There  is  a  cumulative  power  in  moral 
good  as  well  as  in  moral  evil.  According  to  an 
old  Red  Indian  superstition,  whenever  one  of  their 
braves  scalped  an  enemy,  the  strength  of  the 
victim  passed  into  the  arm  of  his  murderer.  That 
old  and  bloody  superstition  may  be  a  parable  of 
our  moral  conflict.  "  Each  victory  will  help  you 
some  other  to  win." 

3.  Resist,  then,  the  beginnings  of  evil.  And 
yet  even  this  is  not  enough  ;  it  is  too  exclusively 
negative,  and  no  man  ever  fought  successfully  the 
battle  of  life  with  none  but  negative  principles  as 
his  weapons.  In  this,  as  in  other  things,  we  must 
overcome  evil  with  good.  If  we  would  die  unto 
sin,  we  must  live  unto  God.  If  we  would  cease 
to  do  evil,  we  must  learn  to  do  well.  The  devil's 
tares  always  flourish  best  in  an  unsown  soil  ; 
good  wheat  will  keep  them  out  better  than  much 
weeding.  If  a  room  is  barred  and  shuttered  at 
midday,  it  is  useless  to  try  to  bale  out  the  dark- 
ness ;  fling  back  the  door  and  shutters  and  let  the 
light  stream  in.  And  you  can  never  empty  your 
heart  of  evil  by  main  force  ;  only  the  light  can 
overcome  the  darkness.  Was  not  that  the  mean- 
ing of  Dr.  Chalmers'  famous  and  profoundly  true 
phrase — "  the  expulsive  power  of  a  new  affection  "  ? 
Just  as  when  spring  comes,  and  a  new  life  is  bursting 
from  every  branch  of  the  tree,  the  old  and  withered 


Temptation  iO( 


leaves  drop  off  of  themselves,  so  if  we  fill  our 
minds  and  hearts  with  the  things  that  are  pure 
and  lovely  and  of  good  report,  the  desire  for 
what  is  base  and  selfish  and  unclean  will  droop 
and  die.  And  therefore  it  is  that  I  lose  no 
opportunity  of  urging  upon  young  men  the  search 
after  the  best  things  in  life.  Love  good  books. 
Have  a  hobby ;  turn  amateur  photographer  or 
electrician,  anything  you  like,  so  that  the  blanks 
in  your  life  are  worthily  filled.  Remember  that 
evil  knocks  in  vain  at  the  heart's  door  when  the 
mind  is  "  a  mansion  for  all  lovely  forms "  ;  but 
into  the  empty  chamber  the  seven  devils  enter  in 
all  their  diabolical  completeness. 

And  yet,  much  as  these  "  best  things  "  may  do 
for  us  if  we  use  them  well,  they  are  not  the  master- 
forces  of  life.  Let  any  one  look  back  over  his 
own  past,  and  he  will  see  that,  for  good  or  for  ill,  he 
owes  most,  not  to  some  abstract  truth,  or  idea,  or 
principle,  but  to  somebody — the  master-forces  of 
life  are  personal.  "  What  will  they  think  at 
home  ?  "  "  How  can  I  do  this  great  wickedness 
and  yet  win  her  love?" — thoughts  like  these 
have  steadied  many  a  man  on  the  brink  of  tempta- 
tion when  the  wisest  maxims  of  philosophy  and 
morality  would  have  availed  him  nothing. 

But  if  this  is  so,  do  you  not  feel  the  more  the 
strength,  the  cogency  of  Christ's  appeal  to  us  ? 
What  a  mighty  reinforcing  of  the  master-forces  of 
life  awaits  us  here  in  this  Gospel  of  a  Living 
Christ !      You    young  men   may  walk   this  world 


iio  First  Things  First 

girt  with  the  purity  and  power  of  the  Perfect  Man. 
It  is  no  doubtful  message  that  I  bring  to  you. 
He  is,  as  multitudes  can  testify,  "  able  to  succour 
them  that  are  tempted."  Read  this  brief  con- 
fession, picked  at  random  from  the  great  heap  of 
Christian  testimony — the  more  noteworthy,  perhaps, 
because  of  its  author's  distance  from  the  orthodox 
creeds  :  "  I  only  speak  my  own  experience :  I 
am  not  talking  theology  or  philosophy  ;  I  knozv 
what  I  am  saying,  and  can  point  out  the  times 
and  places  when  I  should  have  fallen  if  I  had 
been  able  to  rely  for  guidance  upon  nothing  better 
than  a  commandment  or  a  deduction.  But  the 
pure,  calm,  heroic  image  of  Jesus  confronted  me 
and  I  succeeded.  I  had  no  doubt  as  to  what  He 
would  have  done,  and  through  Him  I  did  not 
doubt  what  I  ought  to  do."  ^  And  yet,  though 
this  strong  helmet  of  salvation  is  offered  to  us  all, 
how  many  of  us — oh,  the  pity  and  wonder  of  it — 
choose  to  go  through  the  pitiless  hail  of  life's 
temptations  bareheaded  and  undefended. 

Does  some  one  say,  "  There  is  no  word  in  all 
this  for  me.  It  is  useless  to  bid  me  flee  from 
temptation  :  I  fought  and  was  beaten.  Useless  to 
tell  me  to  resist  the  beginnings  of  evil ;  I  am  far 
past  that  ;  evil  has  conquered  ;  I  am  its  hopeless 
victim."  My  brother,  what  can  I  say  to  you  ? 
What  but  this,  that  Christ's  Gospel  is  a  Gospel 
for  the  beaten.  All  His  life  He  looked  out  for  and 
He  gave   His  hand   to  the   man   that  was  down. 

^  Mark  Rutherford. 


Temptation  1 1 1 


The  righteous  who  had  never  fallen,  the  whole 
that  had  no  need  of  a  physician,  the  Pharisee  who 
thanked  God  that  he  was  not  as  other  men,  the 
son  that  had  never  at  any  time  transgressed  his 
father's  commandment — it  was  not  these  that  He 
sought ;  but  the  sinner,  the  bad  man,  the  lost 
sheep,  the  prodigal  son — these  the  Son  of  Man 
came  that  He  might  seek  and  save.  And  if  you 
are  of  these,  my  brother,  then  you  are  the  very 
man  Christ  wants.  It  was  for  you  that  He  came 
from  heaven  to  earth  ;  it  was  for  you  that  He 
died  upon  the  cross  ;  and  it  is  to  you  that  once 
again  He  sends  through  my  poor  lips  His  gracious 
message  of  hope  :  "  Him  that  cometh  unto  Me 
I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out." 


HOW  THE   PRIZE  WAS  WOxN  AT  AN 
OLD  ATHLETIC   FESTIVAL 


"  Know  ye  not  that  they  -ivhich  run  in  a  race  run  all,  but  one 
receive  th  the  prize?  Even  so  run,  that  ye  may  attain.  And  every 
nuin  that  striveth  in  the  games  is  temperate  iji  all  things.  Now  they 
do  it  to  receive  a  corruptible  cro7vji ;  but  we  an  incorruptible.  I 
therefore  so  run,  as  not  uncertainly  ;  so  fight  /,  as  not  beating  the 
air :  but  I  buffet  my  body,  and  bring  it  into  bondage :  lest  by  any 
means,  after  that  I  have  preached  to  others,  I  myself  should  be 
rejected.'" — I  Cor.  ix.  24-27. 


VIII 

HOW  THE  PRIZE  WAS  WON   AT   AN 
OLD  ATHLETIC   FESTIVAL. 

TIME  has  washed  out  much  of  the  vivid 
colouring  which  these  words  had  for  those 
who  first  read  them.  The  language  and  metaphors 
are  borrowed  from  those  ancient  athletic  festivals 
which  date  back  from  before  the  dawn  of  history, 
and  which  were  counted  among  the  chief  glories 
of  the  Grecian  people.  There  was  a  special  fitness 
in  the  choice  of  such  an  illustration  in  writing  to 
the  Christians  at  Corinth,  for  it  was  just  outside 
their  own  city  that  one  of  the  most  famous  of  the 
festivals — the  world-renowned  Isthmian  games — 
was  celebrated  every  two  years.  And  Paul  him- 
self could  not  fail  to  have  been  a  witness  on 
perhaps  more  than  one  occasion  of  the  interest 
and  excitement  which  these  national  gatherings 
awakened.  Various  contests  were  engaged  in — 
wrestling,  boxing,  chariot  and  horse-racing  ;  but 
the  most  famous,  and  that  to  which  Paul  makes 
most  frequent  allusion  in  his  letters,  was  the  foot- 


1 1 6  First  Things  First 


race.  The  prize  of  the  winner — the  "corruptible 
crown "  of  which  the  Apostle  speaks — was  a 
wreath  of  pine -leaves  chosen  from  the  grove 
round  the  temple  of  the  god. 

It  is  not  easy  for  us  now  to  realise  the  position 
which  these  games  held  in  the  national  life.  "  None 
but  Greeks  of  pure  blood  who  had  done  nothing  to 
forfeit  their  citizenship  were  allowed  to  contend  in 
them."  The  month  in  which  the  festival  was  held 
was  proclaimed  a  sacred  month  ;  while  it  lasted, 
all  hostilities  between  rival  states  were  suspended, 
on  pain  of  the  displeasure  of  the  gods.  Then  on 
the  day  of  the  festival  the  white  marble  steps 
that  ringed  the  race-course  were  crowded  with 
eager  spectators :  the  elite  of  cultured  Greece, 
state  -  embassies  with  their  gorgeous  retinues, 
vast  multitudes  from  every  corner  of  the  nation 
and  even  from  distant  colonies.  Not  less  distin- 
guished sometimes  were  the  combatants  on  the 
course  or  in  the  arena  ;  a  prince  of  Macedon,  a 
Pythagoras,  or  even  a  Plato  might  have  been  seen 
striving  for  the  mastery.  When  the  contest  was 
ended  honours  of  every  kind  were  heaped  upon 
the  victor ;  friends  reared  his  statue,  poets  sang 
his  praise,  while  the  city  to  which  he  belonged 
received  him  home  like  a  victorious  general,  with 
triumphal  processions  and  joyous  festivities.^ 

The  influence  on  Paul's  thought  of  these  great 
national  gatherings  is  evident  from  all  his  writings. 

^  See  Dr.  Beet's  note  on  the  ' '  Greek  Athletic  Festivals  "  in  his 
commentary  on  Corinthians. 


An  old  Athletic  Festival 


His  letters  abound  in  references  to  them.  When- 
ever he  would  set  forth  the  Christian  life  as  a 
struggle^  it  is  almost  always  under  the  figure  of 
the  racer,  the  boxer,  or  the  wrestler.  He  himself 
is  a  wrestler,  though  not  with  flesh  and  blood  ;  ^ 
like  an  athlete  in  training  he  "  keeps  under "  his 
body  that  he  may  be  able  to  contend  successfully  ;  ^ 
as  an  eager  runner,  forgetting  the  things  which 
are  behind,  he  presses  on  towards  the  goal  ;  ^  for 
him  too  there  is  a  crown  laid  up  ^ — and  so  on 
through  nearly  a  score  of  examples. 

That  these  national  games  had  their  attendant 
evils,  like  some  of  our  own  games  to-day,  is  more 
than  likely.  Nevertheless,  even  there,  Paul's 
quick  eye  read  lessons  worth  every  Christian 
man's  learning.  It  is  some  of  these  that  I  wish 
just  now  to  repeat  and  emphasize. 

In  the  Epistle  from  which  my  text  is  taken, 
Paul  is  writing  to  Christians,  to  men  and  women 
to  whom  had  been  made  known  the  august  realities 
of  the  Christian  faith.  They  claimed  as  theirs  a 
mighty  hope,  a  surpassing  ideal.  They  might  be 
living  amongst  men  who  cared  for  nothing  better 
than  the  poor  perishing  pine-wreaths  of  time,  but 
thei7'  eyes  were  fixed  upon  "  the  crown  of  glory 
which  fadeth  not  away."  That  was  their  faith  ; 
then  says  Paul,  Live  up  to  it.  "  Look  at  the 
racers :  trained  by  long  and  painful  discipline, 
their  eyes   fixed  on  the  goal,  every  nerve  strained 

*  E[)h.  vi.   12.  '^  I  Cor.  ix.  27. 

3  Phil.  iii.  14.  *  2  Tim.  iv.  8. 


ii8  First  Things  First 


to  its  utmost — they  do  it  for  a  corruptible  crown, 
a  twist  of  leaves  that  to-morrow's  sun  will  wither  ; 
but  we,  who  seek  the  crown  incorruptible,  what  are 
we  doing  ?  how  are  we  living  ?  So  run — with 
the  same  singleness  of  purpose,  the  same  panting 
eagerness — that  ye  may  attain."  There  is  the 
simple  truth  that  I  want  to  urge  home. 

I.  But  I  must  begin  with  a  question.  Is  that 
true  of  us  which  Paul  assumed  to  be  true  of  these 
Corinthian  Christians  ?  •  Are  our  eyes  set  on  the 
"  incorruptible  crown,"  or  are  we,  like  the  man 
with  the  muckrake  in  Bunyan's  immortal  page, 
grubbing  in  the  dust  and  dirt  so  that  like  him 
we  can  look  no  way  but  downwards  ?  Or,  to 
speak  plainly  and  without  metaphor,  do  we 
believe  that  goodness,  the  building  up  of  a  true 
Christlike  character,  and  all  of  future  blessedness 
that  that  carries  along  with  it,  are  the  supreme 
things  for  which,  if  need  be,  a  man  should  sacrifice 
all  else  that  he  has  ?  Is  it  with  us  not  a  mere 
make-believe,  but  one  of  the  soul's  root-convic- 
tions, that  I  may  be  rich  and  clever  and  famous, 
but  that  if  I  am  not  good — good  after  Christ's 
idea  of  goodness — it  were  better  for  me  that  I 
had  never  been  born?  Of  course  I  do  not  mean 
that  wealth  and  learning  and  fame  are  valueless, 
— no  man  in  his  senses  dreams  of  saying  that, — 
but  that  these  things,  good  as  they  are,  are  only 
second  best.  Why  here  is  Matthew  Arnold,  the 
apostle  of  "  sweetness  and  light,"  himself  admit- 
ting that  conduct  is   three-fourths   of  life.      What 


An  old  Athletic  Festival  1 19 

does  Christ  tell  us  ?  He  does  not  shut  the  king- 
doms of  knowledge  and  wealth  against  men.  He 
does  not  turn  the  key  in  the  door  of  the  Exchange 
or  the  University  and  say  to  us  His  followers  :  "  It 
is  not  lawful  that  ye  should  enter  here  "  ;  but  He 
does  say,  "  Seek  y^  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and 
His  righteousness."  Was  Jesus  right  or  was  He 
wrong?  The  question  is  vital.  Just  as  the  racer 
must  know  where  the  goal  lies,  so  we  must  settle 
the  question,  What  am  I  going  to  live  for?  Is  it 
for  the  things  that  will  last,  or  for  the  things  that 
will  wither  and  die  ?  The  perishable  pine-wreath 
or  the  unfading  crown  ?      Which  ? 

2.  Note,  further,  that  if  the  true  end  of  life  is 
to  be  attained,  it  must  be  kept  before  us  by  a 
distinct  effort  of  the  mind.  "  I  so  run,"  said  Paul, 
"  as  not  uncei'tainly  ";  as  if  he  had  said,  "  Here  am 
I,  and  there  is  the  goal,  and  I  take  the  straightest 
and  therefore  the  shortest  path  to  it."  There 
were  no  needless  curves  and  loops  in  his  course. 
He  knew  for  what  he  was  living  and  he  lived 
for  it. 

"  Most  men  eddy  about 

Here  and  there — eat  and  drink, 

Chatter  and  love  and  hate, 

Gather  and  squander,  are  raised 

Aloft,  are  hurl'd  in  the  dust, 

Striving  bhndly,  achieving 

Nothing  ;  and  then  they  die — 

Perish — and  no  one  asks 

Who  or  what  they  have  been, 

More  than  he  asks  what  waves, 

In  the  moonht  sohtudes  mild 


I  20  First  Tliimzs  First 

Of  the  midmost  ocean,  have  swcll'd, 
Foam'd  for  a  moment,  and  gone. 

And  there  are  some  whom  a  thirst 
Ardent,  unquenchable,  fires 
Not  with  the  crowd  to  be  spent, 
Not  without  aim  to  go  round 
In  an  eddy  of  purposeless  dust, 
Effort  unmeaning  and  vain." 

You,  my  brother,  have  you  "  chosen  your  path — 

Path  to  a  clear-purposed  goal, 
Path  of  advance  "  ? 

For  without  that  "  clear-purposed  goal "  life 
will  end  in  failure.  It  is  not  enough  for  a  man 
simply  to  resolve  vaguely  that  he  will  try  to  do 
what  is  right.  He  must  nail  up  the  decision,  never 
to  be  torn  down  :  "  I  will  make  money  if  I  can,  I 
will  win  distinction  at  the  University  if  I  can,  but 
whatever  else  I  do  or  do  not  do,  I  will  at  least  in 
all  things  obey  Christ  and  do  the  will  of  God." 
Life  is  a  sea  wherein  a  thousand  cross-currents 
run,  and  if  you  do  not  fix  a  strong  hand  on  the 
helm,  and  a  steady  eye  on  the  pole-star,  your 
little  craft  will  soon  go  to  pieces  on  the  rocks. 

3.  But  again — to  return  to  the  metaphor  of 
my  text — it  is  not  enough  even  to  keep  the  goal 
in  view.  To  reach  it  there  must  be  effort  intense 
and  prolonged,  up  to  the  very  edge  of  our  powers 
of  endurance.  Go  to  the  racer,  thou  sluggard,  and 
learn  of  him  ;  watch  him  that  "  receiveth  the  prize," 
and  "  so  run,  that  ye  may  attain."      Is  not  that 


An  old  AtJiletic  Festival  121 

the  gospel  of  common  sense  ?  If  it  is  worth 
while  to  take  pains  to  win  a  race,  is  it  not  to  work 
out  our  own  salvation  ?  What  unreasonable 
beings  we  are  !  In  matters  of  worldly  wisdom  we 
are  full  of  wise  saws  and  modern  instances  ;  with 
our  little  hoard  of  maxims  preaching  down  the 
follies  of  careless  youth  :  "  practice  makes  perfect  " 
— "  no  royal  road  to  knowledge " — "  genius  an 
infinite  capacity  for  taking  pains  " — "  no  gains 
without  pains,"  and  so  on  and  so  on.  All  this 
we  carefully  remember  in  the  ninety -and -nine 
things  of  life  ;  but  when  it  is  the  discipline  and 
development  of  our  moral  and  religious  life  that 
is  concerned,  we  fling  our  maxims  to  the  four 
winds,  and  we  expect  that  somehow  or  other 
everything  will  come  right  of  itself  without  our 
troubling.  Watch  a  tight-rope  dancer  in  a  travel- 
ling show,  and  you  know  that  behind  that  ten- 
minutes'  performance  there  are  months,  may  be 
years,  of  persistent,  painful  effort.  Is  then  the 
discipline  of  the  spirit  a  task  so  much  lighter  than 
the  discipline  of  the  body  ?  What  makes  your 
Samuel  Budgetts,  your  "  successful  merchants  "  ? 
Tireless  patience,  unending  toil  ;  and  do  you  think 
if  getting  "  on  "  is  difficult,  getting  "  up  "  is  easy  ? 
From  Demosthenes  downwards,  men  conscious  of 
great  powers  of  speech  have  been  compelled  to 
silence  through  some  unhappy  defect  of  utterance, 
but  even  this  determination  and  toil  have  conquered 
in  the  end  ;  and  we  think  minutes  will  do  for  a 
bad  temper  what  years  will  hardly  do  for  a  stutter ! 


1 2  2  First  Things  First 

Ask  any  master  of  his  craft  the  secret  of  his 
success — a  Stevenson,  a  Paderewski,  a  Ruskin  ^ — 
and  they  will  give  you  but  one  answer  ;  they  have 
had  to  toil  terribly,  to  scorn  delights  and  live 
laborious  days. 

"  The  heights  by  great  men  reached  and  kept 
Were  not  attained  by  sudden  flight, 
But  they,  while  their  companions  slept, 
Were  toihng  upward  in  the  night." 

And  this  does  not  surprise  us  :  we  know  that  if 
excellence  is  our  goal  this  is  the  only  road  to  it. 
And  yet  in  religion  we  act  as  if  sleeping  would 
accomplish  quite  as  much,  if  not  indeed  a  little 
more,  than  "  toiling."  I  tell  you,  nay.  Like  the 
racer  that  "  receiveth  the  prize,"  so  must  we  run 
if  we  would  attain.  We  must  "  exercise  "  ourselves 
"  unto  godliness,"  be  gymnasts  (so  we  might 
translate  it)  with  a  view  to  godliness.^      We  must 

^  One  of  the  first  of  R.  L.  Stevenson's  printed  papers — Ordered 
Souths  a  brief  essay  which  first  appeared  in  Macmillati's  Magazine, 
now  to  be  found  in  Virginihtis  Ptiertsqiie—VooV  him  nearly  three 
months  to  write:  "I  imagine  nobody,"  he  says,  "ever  had  such 
pains  to  learn  a  trade  as  1  had ;  but  I  slogged  at  it  day  in  and  day  out ; 
and  I  frankly  believe  (thanks  to  my  dire  industry)  I  have  done  more 
with  smaller  gifts  than  almost  any  man  of  letters  in  the  world." 

It  is  said  of  Paderewski,  the  great  pianist,  that  he  practises 
twelve,  sixteen,  and  even  eighteen  hours  a  day. 

One  of  Ruskin's  pupils  once  said  to  him,  "The  instant  I 
entered  the  gallery  at  Florence  I  knew  what  you  meant  by  the 
supremacy  of  Botticelli."  "In  an  instant  did  you?"  said  Ruskin  ; 
"it  took  me  twenty  years  to  find  it  out." 

^  I  Tim.  iv.  7,  8.  The  word  translated  "exercise  "  {"^vjivaalo.)  in 
verse  8  is  identical  with  our  English  word  "gymnastics."  Further, 
the  verb  in  ver.  7  (7y/ij'a^e)  is  formed  from  the  same  root,  but  it  has 


An  old  Athletic  Festival 


"  strive  " — agonise — if  we  would  enter  in  at  the 
strait  gate.  It  is  the  law  of  the  Lord  of  the  contest, 
and  no  man  is  crowned  "  except  he  have  contended 
lawfully." 

4.  Notice,  in  the  last  place,  that  "  every  man 
that  striveth  in  the  games  is  temperate  in  all  things!' 
For  ten  months  before  the  time  of  the  festival  the 
athlete  underwent  the  severest  training,  submitting 
himself  to  all  manner  of  restrictions  in  food  and 
drink,  etc.,  that  so  he  might  be  able  to  contend 
successfully.  And  in  this  again  he  was  an 
example  for  Paul  :  "  I  so  run."  Then  suddenly,  as 
his  fashion  was,  he  changes  the  metaphor  ;  he  is 
no  longer  a  racer  but  a  boxer  :  "  so  fight — so  box 
I."  His  antagonist  is  his  body.  He  does  not 
beat  the  air  ;  he  aims  well,  and  plants  his  blows 
where  they  will  tell  :  "  I  buffet  my  body — I  beat 
it  black  and  blue. "  ^  But  whichever  illustration 
we  prefer  to  take,  the  meaning  is  the  same — with- 
out self-denial  we  can  never  "  attain." 

Let  no  one  mistake :  this  is  no  defence  of 
asceticism  as  an  end  in  itself,  and  for  its  own 
sake.  It  is  only  the  affirmation  of  the  great  and 
true  principle,  that  the  lower  must  give  way  to 
the  higher,  wherever  the  two  clash.  "  If  thy  hand 
or  thy  foot  causeth  thee  to  stumble" — mark,  ij 
they  do,  it  is  not   necessary  that  they  should,  but 

no  corresponding  equivalent  in  English,  and  we  can  only  give  full 
expression  to  its  meaning  by  some  such  paraphrase  as  I  have 
suggested. 

^  See  page  10. 


1 24  First  Things  First 

if  they  do,  then  there  is  only  one  thing  to  be 
done — "  cut  it  off  and  cast  it  from  thee."  That 
was  the  principle  of  the  runner  in  the  games  ;  he 
gave  up  not  only  what  was  positively  harmful,  but 
also  what  at  other  times  he  could  enjoy  and  be 
none  the  worse  for,  just  because  he  had  the  prize 
in  view.  And  if  we  are  to  run  the  race  set  before 
us  we  must  lay  aside  not  only  the  sin  which,  like 
a  closely  clinging  garment,  wraps  us  round,  but 
also  "  every  weight  " — the  things  that  though  they 
be  not  sins  are  yet  hindrances.  "  If  we  would  run 
well,  we  must  run  light." 

Is  there  not  an  answer  here  to  many  of  those 
questions  with  which  young  men  and  women  especi- 
ally are  for  ever  assailing  their  ministers — questions 
about  dancing,  card-playing,  theatre-going,  and 
the  like?  For  myself,  I  always  refuse  to  answer 
such  questions  except  in  the  most  general  terms. 
The  law  that  applies  here  is  not  "  Bear  ye  one 
another's  burdens,"  but  "  Each  man  shall  bear  his 
own  burden  "  ;  and  no  one  is  justified  in  seeking 
relief  from  the  responsibility  of  a  decision  which 
rests  with  himself  alone.  Nevertheless,  it  may  be 
well  to  point  out  that  it  is  not  enough  simply  to 
satisfy  ourselves  that  any  particular  course  of 
action,  about  which  we  may  be  in  doubt,  is  not 
absolutely  sinful.  What  is  not — to  make  the 
distinction  already  referred  to — a  "  sin  "  may  yet 
be  "  weight,"  a  "  weight,"  i.e.,  for  me,  though  not 
necessarily  therefore  for  all  ;  and  if  that  be  so,  my 
duty  is   clear,   I   must    cast  it    from   me.      These 


An  old  Athletic  Festival  125 

things  of  which  I  have  spoken,  they  are  not  the 
highest  things  in  Hfe — we  are  not  here  to  amuse 
ourselves  ;  and  if,  harmless  as  they  may  be  in 
themselves,  they  are  yet  hindering  us  from 
attaining  the  higher  and  better  things  which  God 
designs  for  us,  surely  we  ought  to  let  them  go. 

Is  that  for  some  a  hard  saying  ?  Yet  is  it  not 
the  dictate  of  prudence,  of  reason  ?  I  sat  at  table 
once  with  a  young  man  who  drank  vinegar  with 
his  water,  and  took  no  sugar  in  his  tea  ;  he  was 
"  in  training  "  for  some  sports  that  were  to  come 
off  shortly.  But  the  man  who  is  willing  for  the 
sake  of  a  belt  or  a  silver  cup,  and  a  paragraph  in 
an  evening  paper,  to  submit  to  little  inconveniences 
of  this  sort,  and  then  refuses  to  deny  himself  in 
anything  in  order  that  he  may  make  his  own  the 
things  in  life  that  are  really  worth  having,  is  a 
short-sighted  fool.  "  It  is  better  " — calculate  it,  if 
you  will,  as  a  problem  in  Profit  and  Loss — "  it  is 
better  to  enter  into  life  maimed  or  halt  rather  than 
having  two  hands  or  two  feet  to  be  cast  into  the 
eternal  fire."  Surely,  surely  it  is  better  to  seek  after 
that  which  God  has  made  us  for,  even  though  it 
be  through  painful  loss  and  self-martyrdom,  than, 
missing  that,  to  spend  our  days  in  idle  pleasures 
and  inglorious  ease. 

Does  anybody  tell  me  I  have  forgotten  the  cen- 
tral truth  of  the  Gospel  ?  that  I  have  been  speaking 
all  this  time  of  what  man  has  to  do  for  himself,  and 
have  said  nothing  of  what  God  has  done  for  him  ? 


26  Fh'st  Things  First 


One  thing  at  a  time.  Many  an  idle,  good-for- 
nothing  Christian  has  made  for  himself  a  comfort- 
able bed  of  down  out  of  the  doctrine  of  Justification 
by  Faith,  when  he  ought  to  have  been  in  the 
gymnasium.  There  is  no  salvation  by  struggle, 
and  there  is  none  without  it.  Effort  alone  is  vain, 
faith  alone  is  equally  vain.  If  I  had  only  a  Gospel 
of  self-help  to  preach,  I  should  be  a  fool  for  my 
pains  ;  none  the  less  is  it  needed.  I  go  further 
than  that,  and  I  tell  you  as  plainly  as  I  know  how, 
that  if  a  man  is  content  to  let  blind  impulse  carry 
him  where  it  will,  if  he  has  thrown  the  reins  upon 
the  horse's  neck,  and  will  not  so  much  as  move  a 
finger  to  get  them  into  his  hands  again,  then  he 
will  go  to  the  devil,  and  all  his  Bible-reading,  and 
prayer-saying,  and  church-going  will  be  powerless 
to  save  him.  Then,  my  brothers,  gird  up  the  loins 
of  your  mind  ;  be  sober.  Take  to  yourselves  the 
whole  armour  of  God.  Summon  every  ally  into 
this  holy  war.  Remember,  Mansoul  never  fell 
save  by  the  treachery  of  the  townsmen  within  her 
walls.  Heaven's  King  is  on  our  side.  Above  the 
clash  of  battle  He  cries  to  us  :  "  Fight,  I'll  help 
thee  ;  conquer,  I'll  crown  thee,"  Now,  now,  will 
you  enlist  in  His  service  ;  will  you  fight  under  His 
banner  ? 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  PROBLEMS- 
MYSELF 


IX 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  PROBLEMS— 
MYSELF 

I  HAVE  omitted  the  usual  Scripture  passage 
from  the  head  of  this  address,  because  before 
giving  you  anything  by  way  of  text,  I  want  you 
to  read  over  with  me  one  or  two  brief  extracts 
from  three  modern  and  well-known  volumes.  I 
take  this  from  Mrs.  Lynn  Linton's  popular  novel. 
The  True  History  of  Joshua  Davidson.  Speaking 
of  the  hero  of  her  story  she  says  :  "  No  man  was 
ever  more  convinced  than  he  that  sin  and  misery 
are  the  removable  results  of  social  circumstances, 
and  that  poverty,  ignorance,  and  class  distinctions 
consequent,  are  at  the  root  of  all  the  crimes  and 
wretchedness  afloat."  There  is,  by  the  way,  a 
curious  mingling  of  metaphor  in  the  last  part  of 
the  sentence;  but  let  that  pass.  My  second 
extract  is  from  Mr.  Edward  Bellamy's  Looking 
Backward.  This  is  the  nineteenth  century  looked 
at  from  the  vantage-ground  of  the  year  2000  : 
"  In  your  day" — i.e.  the  day  in  which  we  are  living 

K 


First  Things  First 


— "  fully  nineteen-twentieths  of  the  crime,  using 
the  word  broadly  to  include  all  sorts  of  misde- 
meanours, resulted  from  the  inequality  in  the 
possessions  of  the  individuals."  My  last  quotation 
is  from  Mrs.  Annie  Besant's  recently -published 
Autobiography.  "  Whence  comes  sin  ?  "  she  asks  ; 
and  this  is  her  answer  :  "  Evil  comes  from  ignor- 
ance, ignorance  of  physical  and  moral  facts, 
primarily  from  ignorance  of  physical  order.  .  .  . 
The  root  of  all  is  poverty  and  ignorance.  Edu- 
cate the  children,  and  give  them  fair  wage  for 
fair  work  in  their  maturity,  and  crime  will  gradu- 
ally diminish  and  ultimately  disappear.  Make  the 
circumstances  good  and  the  results  will  be  good."  ^ 
And  now,  with  these  extracts  in  our  mind,  let 
us  turn  to  the  New  Testament.  "  Woe  unto  you, 
scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites ! "  said  Jesus, 
"  for  ye  cleanse  the  outside  of  the  cup  and  of  the 
platter,  but  within  they  are  full  from  extortion  and 
excess.  Thou  blind  Pharisee,  cleanse  first  the 
inside  of  the  cup  and  of  the  platter,  that  the 
outside  thereof  may  become  clean  also."  ^  "  Out 
of  the  heart " — the  "  heart,"  mark,  not  "  social 
circumstances  "  —  "  come  forth  evil  thoughts, 
murders,  adulteries,  fornications,  thefts  .  .  ." 
all  the  things,  indeed,  "  which  defile  the  man."  ^ 

^  This  is  Mrs.  Besant's  exposition  of  her  faith  at  one  period  of 
her  chameleon-like  mental  history.  Whether  she  holds  to  exactly 
the  same  view  still  I  cannot  tell ;  but  with  this  word  of  explanation, 
I  trust  I  do  her  no  injustice  in  allowing  her  words  to  stand  as  I 
have  quoted  them  above. 

2  Matt,  xxiil.  25,  26.  ^  lb.  xv.  19,  20. 


TJie  Problem  of  Problems — Myself    1 3 1 

"  The  kingdom  of  God  is  within  you  "  ;  ^  or,  as 
Paul  says,  "  The  kingdom  of  God  is  not  eating 
and  drinking,  but  righteousness  and  peace  and  joy 
in  the  Holy  Ghost."  ^  All  is  summed  up  in  the 
great  word  of  Christ :   "  Ye.  must  be  born  again."  ^ 

So  then  in  this  double  set  of  sayings — one 
from  the  New  Testament,  the  other  from  the 
writers  whose  books  I  have  quoted — the  same 
problem  of  evil  is  looked  at  from  two  different 
points  of  view.  On  the  one  hand  it  is  urged,  "  If 
man  is  bad,  it  is  because  his  circumstances  are  bad, 
and  if  you  want  to  put  him  right,  you  must  begin 
by  putting  them  right."  On  the  other  hand  it  is 
replied,  "  No  ;  that  is  only  part  of  the  truth,  and 
the  least  important  part  too.  If  man  is  bad,  the 
seat  of  the  mischief  is  in  himself;  and  therefore 
the  starting  point  of  all  true  reformation  must  be 
the  individual.  Make  the  tree  good,  and  the  fruit 
will  be  good  also." 

Here,  then,  a  pretty  clear  issue  is  raised.  My 
aim  just  now  is  to  demonstrate  and  to  vindicate 
the  position  of  Christianity.  We  are  face  to  face 
with  all  kinds  of  questions,  the  land-question,  the 
labour-question,  the  liquor-question,  and  I  know 
not  how  many  more  besides,  but  the  question,  the 
problem  of  problems  is  just  this — Myself. 

Yet  do  not  let  me  be  misunderstood.  This 
does  not  mean  that  Christianity  deals  only  with 
the  individual,  and  that  in  regard  to  these  other 
questions  that  I  have  named  the  Church  can  look 

^  Luke  xvii.  21.  ^  Rom.  xiv.  17.  ^  John  iii.  3. 


132  First  Things  First 

on  with  the  eye  of  an  indifferent  spectator,  as  if 
she  had  no  word  to  utter  in  regard  to  them. 
There  was  a  time,  undoubtedly,  when  men's 
conceptions  of  religion  were  too  narrow,  because 
too  exclusively  individualistic.  They  saw,  indeed 
— and  it  was  their  supreme  glory  that  they  saw  it 
so  clearly  and  preached  it  so  faithfully — that 
Christ  Jesus  is  able  to  save  all  that  put  their  trust 
in  Him.  They  felt  the  surpassing  greatness  of 
His  Gospel  of  redemption  for  the  individual  as 
perhaps  few  of  us  to-day  have  ever  felt  it.  But 
they  did  not  see  that  over  and  above — or  rather, 
shall  I  say,  through — the  salvation  of  the  indi- 
vidual, Christ  seeks  the  establishment  of  a  Divine 
kingdom,  the  bringing  in  of  new  heavens  and  a 
new  earth  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness.  Be 
that  as  it  may,  so  far  as  the  past  is  concerned,  no 
one  can  deny  that  that  larger  conception  of  the 
meaning  and  purpose  of  Christ's  work  among  men 
is  to-day  the  common  possession  of  all  sections 
of  the  Christian  Church.  From  the  Pope  at 
Rome  to  the  General  of  the  Salvation  Army,  we 
are  all  of  us,  for  better  or  for  worse,  busy  with 
"  the  social  question."  For  once  the  novelist  and 
the  revivalist  join  hands.  Rudyard  Kipling  has 
a  terrible,  short  story  dealing  with  East  London 
life  ;  and  this  is  how  the  "  heroine  "  of  the  story 
addresses  a  Christian  worker :  "  I  know  what's 
what,  /  do,  and  they  don't  want  your  religion, 
Mum.  It's  all  right  when  they  comes  to  die, 
Mum,  but  till  they  die  what  they  wants  is  things 


The  Problem  of  Problems — Myself    133 

to  eat."  And  if  you  turn  to  General  Booth's 
much-talked-of  book,  you  find  him  putting  this 
question  :  "  What  is  the  use  of  preaching  the 
Gospel  to  men  whose  whole  attention  is  concen- 
trated upon  a  mad,  desperate  struggle  to  keep 
themselves  alive  ?  "  Are  not  our  social  questions 
religious  questions  too  ?  With  regard  to  the 
drink-question  it  is  needless  to  speak  ;  the  Church 
has  made  that  its  own  long  ago.  But  can  it  stop 
there  ?  Will  not  the  stern  logic  of  facts  compel 
it  to  go  farther  ?  Is  it  not  becoming  clearer 
every  day  that  if  we  are  to  deal  effectually  with 
this  one  evil  we  cannot  deal  with  it  alone  ?  Our 
social  problems  are  a  matted,  tangled  mass,  and 
the  moment  you  pull  at  one  loose  end  half  a 
dozen  others  come  up  with  it.  What  then  ?  Is 
every  Christian  minister  to  turn  politician,  to  draw 
up  little  programmes  of  social  reform,  and  to 
agitate  until  they  are  carried  out  ?  By  no  means. 
Ministers  are  not  called  to  be  statesmen.  But  they 
are  called  to  be  prophets  ;  and  woe  to  the  prophet 
that  is  dumb  in  the  presence  of  evil  !  The  cry  of 
the  wronged  son  of  the  soil,^  of  the  over-tasked 
toiler,^    of   the    labourer    defrauded    of  his    hire,^ 

^  Isaiah  v.  8,  9.  Two-thirds  of  the  land  of  Scotland  to-day  is  in 
the  hands  of  330  men.  There  is  (or  there  was  till  quite  recently) 
one  Scotch  landlord  who  can  ride  thirty  miles  in  a  straight  line  over 
his  own  property.  Millions  of  acres  in  the  Highlands  have  been 
depopulated  simply  that  my  Lord  Somebody-or-other  may  have  a 
forest  in  which  to  hunt  his  deer,  or  a  moor  over  which  to  shoot  his 
grouse.     (See  Scott  Matheson's  Church  and  Social  Proble/ns). 

2  Isaiah  Iviii.  3  (R.V.  marg.)  ^  Jas.  v.  4. 


1 34  First  Things  First 

must  all  enter  into  his  ears.  He  must  cry  aloud 
and  spare  not ;  he  must  be  the  nation's  con- 
science, as  the  very  voice  of  God  to  plead  for  the 
oppressed  and  to  condemn  the  oppressor.^  The 
stone  is  still  at  the  mouth  of  the  tomb  where 
Lazarus  lies  stiff  and  cold,  and  till  strong  Christian 
hands  have  rolled  it  away,  the  dead  man  can- 
not hear  the  life-giving  word  of  the  Son  of 
God. 

Yes,  but  when  the  stone  is  rolled  away,  Lazarus 
is  still  to  bring  forth.  And  that  is  what  we  all 
seem  to  be  forgetting.  Let  us  have  temperance 
legislation,  and  shorter  hours,  and  a  "  living  wage," 
and  better  dwellings  for  the  poor — the  sooner 
the  better ;  but  when  you  have  got  them  you 
will  not  have  turned  the  devil  out  nor  brought  the 
millennium  in.  When  you  have  made  the  world 
fit  to  live  in,  you  have  still  to  make  man  fit  to 
live  in  it.  Exception  is  sometimes  taken  now- 
adays to  the  old  phrase  "  saving  souls."  What 
is  meant  may  be  reasonable  enough  ;  nevertheless 
the  objection  is  quite  needless.  For  what,  after 
all,  are  all  our  social  problems  at  bottom  but  soul 
problems  ?  I  wish  it  were  possible  for  every 
young  man    to  read    and  consider  well   a  recent 

^  Speaking  of  the  land-question  and  the  liquor-question  of  Isaiah's 
day,  Prof.  G.  A.  Smith  says:  "They  are  something  worse  than 
questions.  They  are  huge  sins,  and  require  not  merely  the  states- 
man's wit,  but  all  the  penitence  and  zeal  of  which  a  nation's 
conscience  is  capable.  It  is  in  this  that  fhe  force  of  Isaiah's 
treatment  lies.  We  feel  he  is  not  facing  questions  of  state,  but  sins 
of  men." 


The  Problem  of  Problems — Myself    135 

utterance  on  this  subject  by  Dr.  Oswald  Dykes.^ 
Dr.  Dykes  speaks  as  one  in  full  sympathy  with 
the  new  social  spirit :  "  The  movement  for  ele- 
vating and  gladdening  the  lives  of  the  poor  is," 
he  says,  "  an  outgrowth  of  the  Christian  spirit." 
"  The  theology  and  the  pulpit  of  our  Churches,"  he 
declares,  "  dare  not  hold  themselves  aloof  from 
such  applications  of  Christianity  to  common  life." 
"  But,"  he  adds,  "  the  new  social  theory  of  salvation 
is  apt  to  be  as  one-sided  as  the  old,  and  a  great 
deal  more  shallow."  And  therefore,  "  the  Church 
must  protest  that  the  problem  of  personal  guilt 
and  sin  is  the  first  and  the  worst  and  the  nearest 
of  all  problems  for  each  man  of  us  to  solve,  that 
which  it  most  concerns  us  to  get  settled,  and  that 
with  this  problem  no  one  deals  and  no  one  can 
deal  save  the  Divine  Saviour  who  was  crucified 
on  Calvary."  I  say  "  Amen "  to  every  word  of 
that  with  all  my  heart.  Keep,  if  I  may  so  say, 
one  foot  of  the  compass  firmly  fixed  here,  in 
every  man's  need  of  Christ's  redemption,  and  with 
the  other  limb  you  may  sweep  as  wide  a  circle  as 
you  please — the  wider  the  better.  But  when  so 
many  voices  are  urging  the  importance  of  the 
big  sweep — and  mine  is  often  among  the  number 
— suffer  me  to  be  old-fashioned  and  to  preach  the 
old  Gospel  of  individual  salvation  as  the  only  hope 
for  the  salvation  of  the  world. 

^  A  sermon  preached  at  the  reopening  of  Regent  Square 
Presbyterian  Church,  London,  and  reported  verbatim  in  The 
Christian    World    Pulpit   (13th    September    1893)  —  perhaps    the 


1 36  First  Things  First 

Turn  back  to  the  extracts  with  which  this 
address  opened.  In  brief,  they  come  to  this,  that 
(as  I  once  heard  a  Socialist  say)  men  in  the  mass 
are  what  their  circumstances  make  them.  Now 
I  venture  to  affirm  that  that  is  true  neither  scien- 
tifically nor  historically. 

I.  It  is  not  scientifically  true.  Take  any 
plant  or  animal,  and  ask  a  scientist  what  are  the 
determining  factors  in  its  life -history.  He  will 
tell  you  they  are  two.  There  is  first  what  he 
calls  "  the  nature  of  the  organism,"  and,  secondly, 
"  the  nature  of  the  conditions."  And  he  will 
further  probably  tell  you  that  the  former  is  the 
more  powerful  factor  of  the  two.  Now  the  same 
may  be  said  of  the  moral  life  of  man  ;  but  with 
this  important  difference :  that  man  possesses  a 
power  which  the  plant  or  the  animal  does  not 
possess  of  making  his  environment  at  the  same 
time  that  it  is  making  him  ;  ^  so  that  in  his  case 
"  the  nature  of  the  conditions "  counts  for  less 
even  than  it  does  in  the  case  of  the  plant 
or  animal.  Judge,  then,  of  the  truth  of  state- 
ments such  as  those  I  have  quoted  above.  For 
what  do  they  amount  to  but  this — that  environ- 
ment is  everything,  and  the  nature  of  the 
organism  nothing  ;  that  all  depends  on  the  condi- 
tions under  which  the  original  life -force  is  de- 
veloped,   and    nothing    upon     the    character    of 

wisest  and  most  timely  contribution  of  the  year  to  the  discussion  of 
this  difficult  subject. 

^  See  Drummond's  Natural  Law  hi  the  Spiritual  World, 


The  Problem  of  Problems— Myself    137 

that  force  itself?      Could   there  be  a  more  patent 
absurdity  ? 

2.  Not  less  decisive  is  the  appeal  to  history. 
It  is  easy  enough  for  Mrs.  Besant  to  tell  us  what 
education  and  a  fair  wage  will  bring  to  pass  by 
and  by ;  but  what  is  the  verdict  of  the  past  ? 
Take,  e.g.,  the  history  of  the  great  Roman  civil- 
isation. How  great  that  civilisation  was  I  do 
not  need  to  tell  you.  Something  of  the  pomp 
and  circumstance,  the  sheen  and  glitter  of  it,  you 
may  see  in  Lord  Lytton's  Last  Days  of  Pompeii. 
It  gave  to  us  a  system  of  laws  of  which,  perhaps, 
it  is  not  affirming  too  much  to  say  that  it  has  left 
its  imprint  upon  the  statute-book  of  almost  every 
civilised  community  since.  It  gave  to  us  a 
literature  without  a  knowledge  of  which  no  man's 
education  even  at  the  present  day  is  considered 
complete.  It  fostered  a  love  of  beauty  which 
not  only  built  for  itself  magnificent  structures 
that,  even  in  their  ruins,  remain  to  this  day  at 
once  the  delight  and  the  despair  of  the  architect, 
but  which  spent  itself  in  the  adornment  of  even 
the  commonest  and  meanest  utensils  of  daily  life. 
All  this,  and  much  more  than  this,  the  great 
Roman  civilisation  wrought  ;  and  what  was  the 
outcome  of  it  ?  What,  I  mean,  was  its  outcome 
among  the  very  classes  by  whom  and  for  whom 
these  things  were  secured?  Well,  read  the  first 
chapter  of  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  and 
see  to  what  depths  of  foulest  infamy  Roman 
society  had   fallen       "  But,"  you  ask,  "  was   Paul 


138  First  Things  First 

an  impartial  judge  ? "  Then  hear  Paul's  critic, 
Matthew  Arnold — 

"  On  that  hard  Pagan  world  disgust 
And  secret  loathing  fell ; 
Deep  weariness  and  sated  lust 
Made  human  life  a  hell." 

One  whose  scholarship  ^  has  given  him  a  right  to 
be  heard  on  a  question  of  this  kind  tells  us  that 
"  the  world  has  never  been  so  ingeniously  and 
so  exhaustively  wicked  as  in  Rome  during  the 
first  century."  And  yet  surely  if  ever  "  good 
circumstances  "  had  a  chance  to  show  the  regener- 
ative powers  that  are  in  them,  it  was  there,  and  at 
that  time. 

The  falsity  of  this  half-truth  that  man  is  made 
by  his  "  circumstances "  is  demonstrated  by  a 
hundred  facts  daily.  A  man  may  be  a  friend 
and  companion  of  Jesus  Christ  and  turn  out  a 
Judas  Iscariot ;  he  may  go  straight  from  that 
fair,  pure  Presence  to  a  traitor's  and  a  suicide's 
grave.  Two  workmen  lived  in  a  street  where  a 
friend  of  mine  had  his  church.  One  of  them  was 
a  skilled  artisan  and  earned  forty-five  shillings  a 
week  ;  the  other  was  an  unskilled  labourer  and 
earned  seventeen  shillings  a  week.  But  the  un- 
skilled labourer  "  got  converted,"  and  on  seventeer. 
shillings  a  week  he  made  his  home  like  a  bit  of 
heaven,  while  the  "  home  "  of  the  trained  artisan 
with  his  forty-five  shillings  was  a  den  of  squalor  and 
of  misery.     Do  all  the  saints  live  in  the  West  End, 

^  Dr.  Marcus  Dods,  Erasmus  and  other  Essays^  p.  278. 


The  Problem  of  Problems — Myself    139 

and  all  the  sinners  in  the  East  End?  Does  the  devil 
of  uncleanness  never  take  up  his  abode  in  a  West- 
end  mansion  as  well  as  in  a  Grassmarket  slum  ? 
You  want  "  to  move  the  masses  to  a  cleaner  stye  " 
do  you  ?  God  help  you  to  do  it ;  but  what  is  the 
use  if  you  don't  first  cleanse  the  human  animal  ? 
"  Behind  the  social  problem,"  says  Henry  George, 
"  lies  the  problem  of  the  individual."  "  The  soul 
of  all  improvement  is  the  improvement  of  the 
soul."  That  is  the  great  affirmation  of  Christian- 
ity. Here  in  the  individual  it  finds  the  pivot,  the 
centre,  the  hinge  of  all  true  reformation.  The 
man,  not  society,  must  be  your  unit.  Make  social 
salvation,  in  its  widest  and  largest  sense,  your 
goal  ;  individual  salvation  must  be  your  starting- 
point. 

Does  that  make  the  road  too  long  for  the 
eager  reformer  anxious  to  put  a  wrong  world 
right  ?  And  yet,  what  other  course  is  possible  ? 
We  are  in  the  habit  nowadays  of  condemning 
society  and  condoning  the  individual.  But  is 
not  society  in  the  main  just  what  individuals 
make  it  ?  "  The  character  of  the  aggregate,"  says 
Herbert  Spencer,  "  is  determined  by  the  characters 
of  the  units."  And  he  illustrates  it  thus.  Sup- 
pose a  man  building  with  good,  square,  well-burnt 
bricks  ;  without  the  use  of  mortar  he  may  build 
a  wall  of  a  certain  height  and  stability.  But  if 
his  bricks  are  warped  and  cracked  or  broken,  the 
wall  cannot  be  of  the  same  height  and  stability. 
If,  again,  instead   of  bricks   he  use  cannon-balls, 


1 40  First  Things  First 

then  he  cannot  build  a  wall  at  all  ;  at  most, 
something  in  the  form  of  a  pyramid  with  a  square 
or  rectangular  base.  And  if,  once  more,  for 
cannon-balls  we  substitute  rough  unhewn  boulders, 
no  definite,  stable  form  is  possible.^  Exactly ; 
"the  character  of  the  aggregate  is  determined  by 
the  characters  of  the  units."  Stated  thus,  the 
truth  is  so  obvious  as  to  be  almost  a  truism  ;  and 
yet  in  its  most  important  application  we  lose 
sight  of  it,  and  we  expect  that  by  some  happy 
chance  or  other  we  are  going  to  build  a  recon- 
structed society  when  we  have  not  reconstructed 
men  and  women  to  build  with.  And  therefore, 
I  repeat,  the  problem,  the  problem  of  problems, 
is  still  this — Myself. 

And  this  is  why  Socialism  can  never  be  a 
substitute  for  Christianity :  a  substitute^  I  say ; 
whether  or  not  it  may  in  some  form  or  other 
prove  an  ally  of  Christianity  I  do  not  now  dis- 
cuss ;  but  substitute  it  can  never  be.  Socialism 
busies  itself  with  the  ordering  of  our  social  and 
economic  life,  and  it  seeks  the  welfare  of  the 
community  through  a  reconstruction  of  that  life  : 
it  lives  and  moves  and  has  its  being  among  the 
things  that  are  visible  and  material.  But  the 
"  note "  of  Christ's  teaching,  as  Matthew  Arnold 
saw  and  said  so  often,  is  its  inwardness ;  Christian- 
ity is  a  spiritual  religion,  or  it  is  nothing.  How, 
then,  unless  man  become  utterly  vulgarised  and 
materialised,  can   the  rise  of  Socialism  mean   the 

^  The  Study  of  Sociology,  p.  48. 


The  Problem  of  Problems — Myself    141 

fall  of  Christianity?  Because  a  man  learns  to 
listen  to  John  Burns,  will  he  need  the  less  to  give 
heed  to  Jesus  Christ?  Change  as  you  please  the 
conditions  under  which  wealth  is  produced  and 
distributed — and  this  is  the  aim  of  Socialism — 
yet  man,  the  producer,  the  distributor,  remains 
the  same,  and  it  is  with  him  that  Christianity 
deals. 

There  are,  I  know.  Socialists  who  recognise  this 
as  clearly  as  I  do  ;  but  there  are,  on  the  other 
hand,  many — and  some  of  them  have  the  ear  of 
great  multitudes  of  their  fellow-countrymen — who 
speak  as  if  Christianity  had  had  its  day,  and 
would  very  soon  cease  to  be.  And  they  are  for- 
getting, every  one  of  them,  that  a  new  environ- 
ment does  not  mean  a  new  man.  Yet  it  is  the 
man  and  not  the  environment  that  is  to-day,  as 
it  always  has  been,  the  real  problem.  Readers 
of  Mr.  Bellamy's  book,  to  which  I  have  already 
referred,  will  remember  the  eloquent  sermon  in 
which  a  divine  of  the  year  2000  contrasts  that 
golden  time  with  the  leaden  days  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  He  points  the  contrast  by  a  parable. 
Humanity  is  compared  to  a  rosebush  which,  in 
these  our  days,  was  "  planted  in  a  swamp,  watered 
with  black  bog -water,  breathing  miasmatic  fogs 
by  day,  and  chilled  with  poison  dews  at  night." 
Gardeners  did  their  best,  but  in  vain  ;  the  plant 
would  not  thrive,  the  flowers  would  not  bloom. 
But  at  last  the  year  of  wisdom  came,  and  instead 
of  pottering  longer  with  the  plant,  some  one  said, 


142  First  Things  First 

"  Let  us  try  a  change  of  soil."  And  so  the  rose- 
bush was  transplanted,  "  and  set  in  sweet,  warm, 
dry  earth,  where  the  sun  bathed  it,  the  stars 
wooed  it,  and  the  south  wind  caressed  it  "  ;  and 
lo  !  it  put  forth  its  blossoms,  whose  fragrance  filled 
the  whole  world. 

But  is  it  really  all  so  simple  as  this  ?  How  to 
deal  with  the  soil  is  a  grave  and  difficult  problem, 
doubtless  ;  but  it  is  not  beyond  us  ;  we  are 
grappling  with  it  more  and  more  successfully 
every  day.  The  real  problem  is  the  rosebush  itself. 
"  Give  me  the  bush,"  says  Mr.  Bellamy,  in  effect, 
"  and  I  will  show  you  how  to  grow  the  roses." 
No  doubt  ;  but  how  first  to  grow  your  bush — that 
is  the  difficulty.  For  humanity,  as  most  of  us 
know  it,  is  all  too  often  but  a  rude  hedgerow  thorn, 
which  all  the  bathing  of  suns,  and  wooing  of  stars, 
and  caressing  of  south  winds  can  never  make  into 
aught  besides.  The  bush,  not  the  soil  ;  the  man, 
not  the  environment — there  is  the  problem. 

How  is  it  to  be  solved  ? 

There  is  a  great  word  in  our  theological 
vocabulary — at  least  there  was,  and  I  hope  we 
are  not  going  to  lose  it — the  word  regeneration. 
If  you  were  a  student  at  one  of  our  colleges,  wise 
professors  would  discuss  its  meaning  to  you. 
They  might  prove  to  you  with  many  a  long  argu- 
ment that  it  comes  before  or  after  justification. 
And  I  sometimes  fear  lest  this  wondrous  truth  of 
God   become  to  us  nothing  more  than  a  curious 


The  Proble^n  of  Problems — Myself    143 

dogmatic  fossil  whose  exact  place  in  the  theo- 
logical strata  learned  men  may  painfully  dispute. 
Fools  and  blind  that  we  are,  if  it  be  so.  For  is 
there  not  here,  if  we  did  but  know  it,  the  most 
vital,  the  most  blessed,  the  most  saving  of  all 
truths — that  which  of  all  others  we  most  need  to 
hear  ?  "  Ye  must  be  born  again."  Christ  offers 
to  us  a  new  life  ;  not  a  doctrine,  not  an  example, 
but  a  life  ;  a  life,  not  from  man,  but  from  God,  a 
life  which  is  God's  greatest  and  best  gift  to  the 
children  of  men.  And  this  is  the  life  which 
through  the  Gospel  is  brought  nigh  unto  us. 
God  help  us  to  receive  it,  God  help  us  to 
preach  it. 


ENTHUSIASM 


^' Simon  the  Zealot.'''' — Acts  i.  13. 


ENTHUSIASM 

"  OIMON  the  Zealot,"  not  as  the  more  famihar 
v3  version  renders  it,  "  Simon  Zelotes."  This 
is  the  title  which  distinguishes  this  disciple  both 
in  Luke's  Gospel  and  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 
In  the  Gospels  of  Matthew  and  Mark  he  is  called, 
according  to  our  Authorised  Version,  "  Simon  the 
Canaanite."  But  here  again  the  Revised  Version 
supplies  a  needed  correction.  The  true  reading 
is  not  "  Canaanite,"  but  "  Cananaean "  ;  and 
"  Cananaean  "  is  not  a  geographical  but  a  political 
term,  being,  in  fact,  only  the  Aramaic  form  of  the 
word  "  Zealot";  so  that  really  "  Simon  the  Zealot  " 
is  the  title  by  which  this  disciple  is  known  in  each 
of  the  four  lists  of  the  Twelve  Apostles  in  which 
his  name  appears. 

The  Zealots  were  a  knot  of  political  irreconcil- 
ables,  fiercely  opposed  to  the  dominion  of  Rome. 
Their  name  may  have  been  suggested  by  the 
words  of  the  dying  Mattathias,  the  father  of 
Judas    Maccabaeus :    "  Now,    therefore,    my    sons, 


148  First  Things  First 

be  ye  zealous  for  the  law,  and  give  your  lives  for 
the  covenant  of  your  fathers."  In  their  attitude 
to  the  established  government  of  the  day,  they 
may  be  compared  to  the  Carbonari  of  Italy  in 
Mazzini's  time.  It  was  to  this  band  of  political 
enthusiasts  that  Simon  once  belonged  ;  he  left 
them  to  join  the  disciples  of  Jesus.  Beyond  this 
we  know  nothing.  No  incident  of  the  Gospel 
narratives  is  associated  with  this  disciple's  name. 
Luke  tells  us  that  he  waited  with  the  others  in 
the  upper  room  at  Jerusalem  ;  after  that  we  hear 
no  more.  This  seems  little  enough  to  build  a 
sermon  on  ;  and  yet  the  fact  that  Simon  had 
been  what  he  had — as  I  have  said,  a  kind  of 
political  enthusiast, — added  to  the  fact  that  Jesus 
called  him  to  be  one  of  the  Twelve,  may  serve, 
I  think,  to  remind  us — and  young  men  especially 
— of  two  or  three  important  truths.  I  want  to 
speak  to  you  of  Ejithusiasin  and  its  relation  to 
Jesus  Christ. 

I.  Never  be  ashamed  of  your  enthusiasms. — 
Every  man  should  be  a  bit  of  an  enthusiast.  The 
same  degree  of  enthusiasm  is  not  possible  to  all, 
but  a  "  dash  "  of  it  there  should  be  in  every  one's 
nature.  I  like  a  schoolboy  who  can  shout  at  a 
cricket -match  and  tremble  with  excitement  in 
every  limb  at  the  chance  of  his  side  winning  the 
victory.  Give  me  the  young  man  whose  face 
lights  up,  and  whose  eyes  briL,^hten,  as  he  talks  to 
you   about    his    favourite    hobby — his    books,  his 


Enthusiasm  149 


music,  his  pictures,  his  scientific  experiments ; 
and  even  when  we  are  old,  it  ought  not  to  be 
impossible  for  the  hot  flame  to  leap  ^  up  from  the 
gray  ashes  of  our  life.  For  all  of  us  there  should 
be  a  something  by  which  we  can  be  rapt  clean 
out  of  ourselves,  a  something  that  can  awaken 
all  "  the  slumbering  best "  within  us.  We  too 
should  have  our  visions  and  revelations,  visions  of 
social,  political,  and  religious  reform  ;  should  be 
caught  up  into  the  third  heaven  and  hear  un- 
speakable words,  till,  like  Paul,  whether  in  the 
body  or  out  of  the  body,  we  cannot  tell. 

All  this  is,  I  know,  clean  contrary  to  some 
persons'  notions  of  what  is  right  and  proper.  Their 
ideal  is  to  be  "  faultily  faultless,  icily  regular, 
splendidly  null."  For  them  the  two  great  com- 
mandments on  which  hang  all  the  law  and  the 
prophets  are  these  :  "  Be  sober,"  "  Let  everything 
be  done  decently  and  in  order."  Their  favourite 
motto  is,  "  Look  before  you  leap."  They  worship 
the  great  goddess  of  Prudence,  and  as  for  •"  en- 
thusiasts," "  visionaries,"  "  fanatics,"  "  day-dreamers" 
— their  soul  hateth  them. 

Such  a  temper  ends  at  last  in  cynicism,  to 
which  all  things,  even  the  best,  are  vanity.  A 
clever  living  novelist  has  shown  us  in  one  of  her 
characters  the  workings  of  the  cynical  spirit  : 
"  The  uselessness  of  utterance,  the  futility  of 
enthusiasm,  the  inaccessibility  of  the  ideal,  the 
practical  absurdity  of  trying  to  realise  any  of  the 
mind's   inward   dreams ;    these   were   the   kind    of 


1 50  First  Things  First 

considerations  which  descended  upon  him  slowly 
and  fatally,  crushing  down  the  newly -springing 
growths  of  action  or  of  passion."-^  That  is  the 
deadliest  blight  that  can  fall  upon  the  human 
spirit,  smiting  all  its  green  places  with  barrenness. 
"The  young  man  of  to-day,"  some  one  has 
declared,  "  has  no  religion  and  no  enthusiasm."  I 
do  not  believe  it ;  but  if  any  such  there  be  among 
us,  let  him  kneel  and  pray  God  to  deliver  him 
from  that  death  of  the  soul. 

And  even  though  no  such  fatal  results  are  to  be 
dreaded,  let  us  never  lend  a  hand  to  damp  down  the 
fires  of  any  man's  enthusiasm.  The  world  cannot 
spare  it.  We  owe  far  more  to  one  of  these  hot- 
headed, blundering  men, — men  like  Peter,  for 
example, — who  sometimes  err  along  the  line  of 
their  real  greatness,  than  to  a  whole  regiment  of 
respectable  nobodies,  who  never  violated  a  single 
law  of  propriety.  Enthusiasts  are  not  faultless  ; 
but,  after  all,  faultlessness  is  a  negative  virtue, 
obtainable  cheaply  enough.  Plenty  of  people  never 
go  wrong,  for  the  very  good  and  sufficient  reason 
that  they  never  "  go  "  at  all.  I  think  it  was  Goethe 
who  said  that  there  are  some  of  whose  future  wis- 
dom we  should  have  greater  hopes  if  they  could 
only  once  commit  some  extravagance.  "  For 
God's  sake,"  cries  Robert  Louis  Stevenson,  "  ^\\^ 
me  the  young  man  who  has  brains  enough  to 
make  a  fool  of  himself !  " 

If  only  the  Church  of  Christ  had  always  known 
^  Langham  in  Mrs.  Humphry  Ward's  Robert  Elsmere. 


Enthusiasm  1 5 1 


how  rightly  to  use  her  enthusiasts — how  to  direct 
their  wise  extravagances,  their  magnificent  indis- 
cretions !  Alas !  we  are  not  always  wise  even 
yet.  God  sends  us  a  man  made  after  no  conven- 
tional pattern,  who  cannot,  if  he  would,  jog  along 
in  the  well-worn  ruts  ;  and  what  happens  ?  Why, 
half  a  score  of  well-meaning  wiseacres  pounce  upon 
him,  and  try  to  clap  him  into  an  ecclesiastical 
strait-waistcoat,  and  shear  away  all  that  they  call 
his  "  eccentricities."  And  if  they  could  succeed, 
what  would  you  get  as  a  result  ?  An  irreproach- 
able nonentity  who  would  never  make  any  mistakes 
— nor  anything  else  either. 

"  One  must  become 
Fanatic — be  a  wedge — a  thunderbolt 
To  smite  a  passage  through  this  close-grained  world." 

"  Yes,  but,"  says  some  timid  soul,  "  think  of 
the  mischief  these  madmen  work  ;  the  unrest,  the 
unsettlement  they  cause  us.  Look  at  the  Socialists, 
for  instance,  our  modern  Zealots,  these  '  cock- 
sparrow  revolutionaries,'  who  expect  the  millennium 
(to  borrow  Russell  Lowell's  phrase^)  'by  express 
train  to-morrer,'  who  think  that  El  Dorado  lies 
just  over  the  next  hill-top — why  will  they  not  let  us 
rest  ? "  Be  it  so  :  granted  that  the  enthusiast  is 
often  an  extremist  ;  yet  what  are  these  occasional 
excesses  but  the  small  penalty  that  we  must  pay 
because  enthusiasts  like  the  rest  of  us  are  but 
human  ?      After  all,  is  it  not  better,  as  the  homely 

1  In  the  Biglow  Papers. 


152  First  Things  First 

proverb  says,  that  the  pot  should  boil  over  than 
that  it  should  not  boil  at  all  ?  If  extravaL^ance  is 
bad,  is  not  apathy  infinitely  worse?  In  a  world 
like  ours — "  here,  where  men  sit  and  hear  each 
other  groan,"  "  where  but  to  think  is  to  be  full  of 
sorrow  " — I  had  rather  the  wildest,  maddest  dream 
of  the  Socialist,  who  is  at  least  anxious  to  do 
something,  than  the  easy-going  indifference  of  the 
sleek  and  well-to-do,  who  only  desire  to  be  let 
alone  and  to  make  money. 

Young  men,  never  be  ashamed  of  your  enthu- 
siasms. The  zeal  of  better  men  than  any  of  us  has 
often  won  harsh  words  as  its  first  reward.  When 
the  disciples  stood  up  to  preach  Christ  on  the  day 
of  Pentecost,  the  multitude  said  they  were  drunk. 
When  Paul  with  noble  earnestness  pleaded  his 
cause  before  Festus,  Festus  cried  with  a  loud 
voice  :  "  Paul,  thou  art  mad  :  thy  much  learning 
doth  turn  thee  to  madness,"  When  Christ  taught 
the  people,  many  of  them  said,  "  He  hath  a  devil, 
and  is  mad:  why  hear  ye  Him?"  Even  His 
friends  feared  once  ;  "  and  they  went  out  to  lay 
hold  on  Him  ;  for  they  said,  He  is  beside  Him- 
self." It  is  good  to  be  zealously  affected  in  a 
good  cause.  "  Your  young  men  shall  see  visions, 
and  your  old  men  shall  dream  dreams."  But 
those  whom  God  will  spue  out  of  His  mouth  are 
they  who,  like  the  Laodiceans  of  old,  are  neither 
hot  nor  cold. 

2.  Keep  the  strength  of  your  enthusiasm  for  the 


Enthusiasm  153 


best  things, —  Do  not  let  me  be  misunderstood. 
What  is  best  at  one  time  is  not  always  best  at  all 
times.  If  you  offer  me  a  Shakespeare  or  a  box 
of  tin  soldiers,  I  shall  have  no  difficulty  in  making 
my  choice.  Make  the  same  offer  to  a  child  of 
three,  and  he  will  have  no  difficulty  either,  only 
he  will  take  the  soldiers  ;  and  I  for  one  will 
certainly  not  blame  him.  "  The  true  wisdom  is 
to  be  always  seasonable."  ^  "  When  I  was  a  child, 
I  spake  as  a  child,  I  felt  as  a  child,  I  thought  as 
a  child  :  now  that  I  am  become  a  man,  I  have 
put  away  childish  things."  But  that  is  just  what 
I  want  to  make  sure  of — have  we  put  away 
childish  things  ?  Is  there  not  many  a  grown-up 
man  who  still  sees  things  in  childhood's  perspec- 
tive ?  who  still  prefers  the  toys  and  lets  the 
Shakespeare  lie  on  the  shelf  unopened  ?  It  is 
good  for  manhood  to  maintain  something  of  its  old 
delight  in  boyhood's  games  and  pursuits ;  it  is 
not  good  when  these  become  as  a  kind  of  Aaron's 
rod  that  swallows  up  all  the  larger  and  worthier 
interests  of  our  life.  He  only  has  rightly  learned 
to  live  who  has  learned  how  to  distribute  himself, 
where  to  place  the  emphasis,  when  to  give  and 
when  to  withhold. 

Are   we    making   the    most   of  what    is    most 
worthy  ?      What  should  we  think  of  a  man   who 
built  a  steam-engine   factory  and  then   manufac- 
tured nothing  but  pins  ?      What  should  we  say  of  ^ 
a  student  who  toiled  till  he  was  Senior  Wrangler, 

^  R.  L.  Stevenson. 


154  First  Things  First 

only  to  teach  the  alphabet  and  simple  addition  in 
some  village  school  for  the  rest  of  his  days  ?  Yet 
is  there  not  the  same  sort  of  disproportion  in  the 
lives  of  many  of  us  ?  Some  of  you  have  been 
marksmen  in  a  shooting  competition  ;  there  were 
so  many  rounds  to  be  fired  at  the  200  yards 
range,  so  many  at  the  500,  and  so  on.  Now  you 
have  a  more  serious  business  in  hand.  Remember, 
your  ammunition  is  limited  ;  you  may  use  it  as 
you  will  ;  do  not  play  the  fool  and  waste  all  your 
bullets  on  the  short  range ! 

Let  your  zeal  be  according  to  knoivledge ;  i.e, 
not,  as  some  seem  to  read  it,  let  your  knowledge 
dilute  and  weaken  your  enthusiasm  ;  but  rather, 
let  it  direct  and  control  it  ;  let  it  fix  and  fasten  it 
upon  the  things  that  are  most  worthy  of  it,  "  Seek 
ye  first " — what  ?  what  but  the  first  things  ? — 
"  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteousness." 

3.  Consecrate  your  enthusiasm  to  the  service  of 
Jesus  Christ. —  Many  of  you  are  members  of 
Christian  Churches  ;  take  your  enthusiasm  with 
you  into  your  Church  life.  There  are  some 
amongst  us  to  -  day  who  seem  to  think  that 
religion  and  enthusiasm  have  nothing  to  do  with 
each  other.  Certainly  no  one  would  ever  charge 
them  with  being  beside  themselves.  There  is 
nothing  they  hate  so  much  as  a  noise.  Why  in 
the  world  a  man  should  want  to  shout  because  he 
has  "  got  converted  "  is  wholly  beyond  their  com- 
prehension.     And  as  for  those  horrid  people   the 


Enthusiasm  155 


Salvation  Army,  with  their  jerseys  and  their 
drums,  their  "  Hallelujahs  "  and  their  "  Amens  " — 
Bah  !  I  have  seen  a  man  who  ventured  to  respond 
audibly  to  the  minister's  prayer  looked  upon  by 
his  fellow  -  worshippers  with  something  of  the 
astonishment  with  which  Trinculo  gazed  upon 
Caliban.-^ 

But  let  us  be  reasonable.  Boisterousness  is 
not  the  same  thing  as  earnestness.  Some  there 
are,  too,  who  "  shout "  about  nothing  ;  the  blood 
creeps  languidly  through  their  veins  ;  nothing 
sends  it  from  the  heart  five  beats  the  faster.  And 
since  religion  can  but  deal  with  men  as  it  finds 
them,  such  will  take  their  religion,  as  they  take 
everything  else,  quietly  and  without  demonstration. 
And  some  there  are  who,  in  all  honesty  let  it  be 
spoken,  have  nothing  to  shout  about !  All  I 
plead  for  just  now  is  reasonable  consistency.  If 
when  you  go  to  a  great  political  gathering  to 
listen  to  Lord  Rosebery  or  Mr.  Balfour,  you  think 
it  no  shame  to  stand  on  your  seat  and  wave  your 
hat  and  sing  with  the  loudest,  "  He's  a  jolly  good 
fellow,"  why  should  you  wonder  if  sometimes 
another  is  swept  away  by  the  strong  tides  of 
religious  emotion,  over-mastered  by  his  sense  of 
the  presence  and  power  of  God  ? 

The  service  of  Christ  calls  for,  as  it  is  worthy 
of,  our  loftiest  enthusiasm.  Few  things  are  to  be 
more   lamented  to-day  than  that  so  little — a  mere 

^  This  occurred,   perhaps    I    should   say,  in   a   Scotch   church, 
where  responses  are  very  rarely  heard. 


156  First  Things  First 

trickle  —  of  the  daring,  the  enterprise  of  the 
modern  commercial  world  has  found  its  way  into 
the  Christian  Church.  In  all  our  Churches  there 
are  shrewd  and  nimble-witted  men  of  business, 
who  in  the  business  world  are  always  on  the  alert, 
and  never  miss  a  chance  ;  yet  when  they  come  to 
deal  with  the  affairs  of  Christ's  kingdom  their 
fingers  are  all  thumbs ;  they  are  clogged  with 
prudence  at  every  step  ;  they  dare  nothing  for  the 
glory  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  men.  "  What 
troubles  me,"  said  a  wise  and  witty  Scotch  divine 
the  other  day,  "  is  not  so  much  the  non-church- 
going,  as  the  non-going  Church."  "  Mr.  Chairman," 
cried  an  enthusiastic  colleague  of  mine  once  in  a 
church-meeting,  "  I  move  we  move  the  world." 
Magnificent !  The  early  Christians  not  only 
moved  the  world  ;  they  turned  it  upside  down, 
as  even  their  very  enemies  confessed.  Oh, 
for  a  baptism  of  the  spirit  of  the  heroic  Carey,  to 
expect  great  things  from  God,  to  attempt  great 
things  for  Him  !  And  it  is  to  the  young  men  of 
our  Churches  that  we  look  for  the  rekindling  of 
the  fires  of  Christian  enthusiasm. 

And  you  who  have  not  yet  yielded  yourselves 
to  Christ,  remember  He  can  find  room  in  His 
service  for  every  gift  you  possess.  Paul  the 
Christian  is  not  less  zealous  than  Saul  the 
Pharisee.  He  is  converted,  yet  is  his  natural 
force  not  abated  ;  only  its  direction  is  changed. 
The  pent-up  energy  of  his  great  soul  which 
before    had    gone    thundering    along    the    wrong 


Enthtcsiasm 


157 


track,  his  conversion  switched  on  to  the  right 
Hne,  and  the  power  that  once  wrought  for  man's 
destruction  works  now  with  undiminished  misfht 
for  his  salvation.  Simon  is  not  less  "  the  Zealot " 
because  he  is  now  also  the  disciple.  Young  men, 
with  your  restless  energies  and  eager,  ardent  spirits, 
Christ  calls  for  you.  He  has  need  of  you.  Will 
ye  also  be  His  disciples  ? 


THE   UNANSWERABLE  ARGUMENT 
FOR  CHRISTIANITY 


'■^  And  a  certain  man  that  was  la?iiefro)n  his  mother'' s  womb  was 
ca7'ried,  whom  they  laid  daily  at  the  door  of  the  temple  which  is 
called  Beautiful,  to  ask  alms  of  them  that  entered  into  the  templet — 
Acts  iii.  2. 

^^  And  seeing  the  man  which  was  healed  standing  with  them,  they 
could  say  7iothing  against  it.''— Acts  iv.  14. 


XI 

THE  UNANSWERABLE  ARGUMENT 
FOR  CHRISTIANITY 

THE  lame  man  and  what  to  do  with  him — 
that  is  the  great  problem  of  the  ages.  All 
the  intellectual  conundrums  which  the  subtle  mind 
of  man  has  propounded  look  very  small  by  the 
side  of  that. 

There  is  something  very  significant  in  the 
place  which  this  incident  occupies  in  the  sacred 
narrative.  A  new  religion  had  just  come  into 
existence  ;  it  was  about  to  match  itself  against  the 
great  world-forces  of  evil,  and  here  at  the  very 
outset  it  is  called  upon  to  deal  with  the  lame 
man. 

And  the  lame  man  is  with  us  still — in  the 
drunkard,  the  gambler,  the  thriftless,  the  pauper, 
in  the  vast  army  of  the  morally  incapable,  and,  as 
we  are  sometimes  tempted  to  think  them,  the 
morally  incurable — the  men  and  women  who  are 
the  pain,  the  perplexity,  and  the  despair  of  the 
Christian,  the  social  reformer,  of  every  man  with  a 

M 


i62  First  Things  First 


head  to  think  and  a  heart  to  feel.  Nor  is  that 
all.  The  wretchedness  and  misery  which  such  as 
these  suffer  in  themselves  is  a  mere  fraction  of 
that  which  they  cause,  and  which  they  represent. 
Here,  in  this  story,  we  read  of  some  who  daily 
carried  the  lame  man  to  the  temple  door  ;  their 
lives  were  darkened  by  the  shadow  that  lay  upon 
his,  their  burdens  the  greater  because  of  the  heavy 
lot  which  he  had  to  bear.  ^  And  to-day  we  speak 
of  the  drunkard,  the  gambler,  the  pauper  ;  yet  who 
among  us  really  knows  half  that  lies  behind  those 
words  ?  Statistics  may  tell  you  of  sixty  thousand 
who  every  year  lie  down  in  a  drunkard's  grave  ; 
but  even  more  terrible  still  is  the  long,  black 
shadow  which  these  sixty  thousand  cast,  within 
which  the  lives  of  little  children  and  loving  women 
droop  and  fade  and  die. 

Yes,  the  lame  man  is  with  us  still,  and,  if  it 
does  not  sound  too  fanciful,  he  is  still  at  "  the  gate 
which  is  called  Beautiful."  We  boast  a  civilisa- 
tion the  like  of  which  the  world  has  never  seen 
before  ;  but  yet,  while  we  build  the  mansion,  we 
build  the  workhouse  too.  Here  is  the  university 
and  there  the  gaol.  Within  the  same  city  is  the 
east  end  and  the  west  end  ;  and  oh,  "  how  far  the 
east  is  from  the  west ! "  We  glory  in  our 
cathedrals  and  churches  great  and  fair  ;  but  there, 
within  sound  of  the  music  and  within  sight  of  the 
worshippers,  still  lies  the  lame  man.  The  glitter- 
ing temple  of  our  modern  civilisation  thrusts 
upward  its  heaven-piercing  pinnacles  ;  but  still  at 


The  Unanszverable  Argtuiient        163 

its  gate  crouches  the  lame  man  in  his  helplessness 
and  misery. 

What  are  you  going  to  do  with  him  ?  In  this 
story  I  read  of  the  lame  man  and  the  healed  man. 
How  to  bridge  the  chasm,  how  to  make  of  the  one 
the  other,  how  to  work  this  moral  miracle — that 
is  the  great  problem.  And,  believe  me,  this  is  the 
great  test  by  which  all  our  systems,  be  they 
political,  social,  or  religious,  must  ultimately  be 
judged  :   what  can  they  do  for  the  lame  man  ? 

It  is  with  the  application  of  this  test  to  the 
religion  of  Jesus  Christ  that  we  are  principally 
concerned  just  now  ;  but  it  may  not  be  amiss  to 
point  out  in  passing  that  we  are  at  last  beginning 
to  insist  upon  the  application  of  the  same  test  in 
political  life.  The  old  pagan  conception  of  the 
State  as  a  kind  of  deified  policeman,  whose  one 
duty  was  to  maintain  order  and  to  cudgel 
unruly  subjects,  is  now  happily  passing  away, 
and  we  are  coming  to  recognise  that  the  State 
has  duties  higher  than  the  mere  preservation 
of  the  peace  ;  it  must  defend  the  defenceless, 
relieve  the  oppressed,  and  care  for  the  uncared, — 
in  one  word,  it  must  look  after  the  lame  man. 

But  that  is  a  parenthesis.  My  point  just  now 
is  this  :  this  test  Christianity  frankly  and  fully 
accepts.  "  The  God  that  answereth  by  healed 
men,  let  Him  be  God."  "  Accepts  the  .j^st,"  did  I 
say  ?  Nay,  Christianity  demands  it,  insists  upon 
it  ;  it  will  be  judged  by  no  other.  Itself  throws 
down  the  challenge :  "  If  I   do  not  the  works  of 


164.  First  Things  First 

My  Father,  believe  Me  not.  But  if  I  do  them, 
though  ye  believe  not  Me,  believe  the  works." 
Here  then  is  the  final  and,  as  I  believe,  the 
unanswerable  argument  for  Christianity :  the 
testimony  of  the  healed  man.  And,  mark  you, 
not  the  healed  man  of  yesterday  only,  but  the 
healed  man  of  to-day.  For  this  is  the  glory  of 
the  Christian  religion,  that  with  every  new  day  it 
raises  up  new  witnesses  ;  it  creates  fresh  evidence 
as  it  goes  along.  There  are  some  clever  but 
short-sighted  people  who  imagine  that  if  only  they 
could  silence  the  testimony  of  the  four  Evangelists 
we  should  soon  hear  the  last  of  Christianity. 
Mrs.  Humphry  Ward,  e.g.,  puts  Matthew,  Mark, 
Luke,  and  John  into  the  witness-box,  overturns 
their  evidence  (at  least  to  her  own  satisfaction), 
and  forthwith  turns  round  to  us  and  says,  "  There 
is  an  end  of  the  matter  :  the  case  has  gone  against 
Christianity."  But  has  Jesus  Christ  only  four 
witnesses  ?  They  are  by  no  means  demolished 
yet.  But,  waiving  that  question,  so  far  from  the 
case  being  concluded  when  their  testimony  has 
been  given,  it  has  only  just  been  opened.  We 
claim  to  put  into  the  box  the  saints  of  sixty 
generations — St.  Paul  and  St.  Augustine  and 
Luther  and  Wesley,  the  spokesmen  of  a  great 
multitude  whom  no  man  can  number,  who  have 
been  delivered  from  sin,  and  who  know  that  they 
have  been  so  delivered  by  the  power  of  the  risen 
Christ. 

What    is    included    in  this    testimony  of   the 


The  Unanswerable  Argument        165 


healed  man  it  is  impossible  now  to  state  even  in 
outline.      But  take  two  sets  of  facts  : 

I.   Glance    down    the  record    of    history,  and, 
true  though  it  be  that  the  Church  has  not  always 
had   a   clean   sheet,  that    so-called  "Christianity" 
has    often    been    a    strange    commentary  on    the 
teaching  of  Christ,  this,  at   least,  we   may  affirm 
with  confidence — that  the  best  friends  of  the  lame 
man   have    always   been   among    the  followers  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth.      Take  the  first  century  of  the 
Christian  era.      The  salt  that  saved  the  old  Roman 
world  from  utter  corruption  was  the  teaching  and 
influence  of  Jesus  Christ ;  in  all  history  there  is  no 
fact   more  demonstrable  than  that.      Or  take  the 
question    of    slavery.      That  Christian    men    were 
miserably  slow  to  understand  the  application  of  the 
principles   they  professed  to  believe  nobody  need 
deny  ;  but  the  fact  remains   that  it  was  Christ's 
teaching  which    first  "marked"   the  tree  for  de- 
struction, it    was    Christ's    followers    who    finally 
destroyed    it.      If   women    and    children    are    no 
longer,  at  least  in  civilised  lands,  the  mere  chattels 
or  playthings  of  brutal,  selfish   men,  to  whom   do 
they  owe  their  emancipation  ?      Is  it  not  again  to 
Him  who  first  taught  the  worth,  and  therefore  the 
rights,    the    sacred    indefeasible    rights,    of    every 
individual  soul  ?      And  you,  working  men,  are  not 
you  too  in  debt  to  this  Jesus  of  Nazareth  ?     You 
are    proud    of   your    hard-won  rights,    your    civil 
liberty,  your  freedom  of  speech.      But  set  foot  on 
a  foreign   shore,  where    men    do    not    serve    and 


1 66  First  Things  First 


honour  Christ,  and  what  are  your  "  rights  "  worth 
to  you  then  ?  How  comes  it  to  pass  that  those 
two  things — the  rule  of  Christ  and  the  rights  of  the 
common  people — always  seem  to  go  together  ?  Our 
modern  philanthropy  too — how  shall  we  explain 
it?  Jesus  Christ  built  Edinburgh  Infirmary.  In 
all  Britain  is  there  a  single  great  institution  of 
charity  and  mercy  that  could  keep  its  doors  open 
twelve  months,  if  you  withdrew  from  it  the  gifts  of 
those  whose  love  for  the  suffering  poor  was  first 
awakened  by  the  love  of  Christ  for  all  ?  Mrs. 
Besant  herself  once  confessed  to  Mr.  Stead  her  dis- 
appointment that  agnostics  did  so  little  in  the 
service  of  man,  and  added  that  the  few  who  did 
come  forward  to  help  were  only  those  who,  like  her- 
self, had  been  brought  up  Christians.  Now  these 
are  facts  that  must  be  reckoned  with  ;  this  is  a 
testimony  that  cannot  be  lightly  set  aside. 

2.  And  here  is  a  second  group  of  facts,  very 
different,  but  not  less  important.  There  are  tens 
of  thousands  of  men  and  women  living  to-day 
who  know  that  Jesus  Christ  hath  power  on  earth 
to  forgive  sins.  Time  was  when  the  sense  of  their 
own  guilt  was  to  them  an  intolerable  burden.  But 
they  came  to  Christ ;  to  Him  they  confessed  their 
sin,  from  Him  they  received  forgiveness,  and  in  Him 
they  now  have  peace.  That  is  a  fact  which,  as 
James  Smetham  says  in  one  of  his  Letters,  "  is 
as  great  and  simple  as  the  facts  of  seeing  and  hear- 
ing "  ;  and  it  is  a  fact  which  must  be  accounted  for. 

Nor  is  that  all.      There  are   multitudes   living 


The  Unansivcrable  Argitment        167 


to-day  who  have  been  rescued  from  the  power  of 
evil  habit.  Only  the  other  day  I  met  a  man  who, 
less  than  a  year  ago,  was  living  in  open  adultery, 
and  a  victim  of  the  drink  besides  ;  but  in  a 
Methodist  chapel  the  mercy  of  God  arrested  him, 
and  now  his  whole  life  is  completely  revolutionised. 
Have  you  never  known  such  among  your  own  ac- 
quaintances— drunken,  lazy,  good  -  for  -  nothing 
fellows,  till  one  day  some  "  mission,"  or  perhaps 
the  Salvation  Army,  laid  hold  of  them,  and,  as  we 
Methodists  say,  they  were  "  soundly  converted,"  and 
since  then  they  have  been,  literally,  new  men  ?  An 
eminent  evangelist  once  declared  in  a  newspaper 
controversy  that  he  was  prepared  any  day,  at 
a  few  hours'  notice,  to  summon  five  hundred 
witnesses,  ready  to  declare  under  oath,  if  need  be, 
the  truth  of  that  Gospel  of  salvation  from  the  power 
of  sin  which  every  week  he  preached. 

This  then  is  the  testimony  of  the  healed  man  ; 
what  have  you  to  say  to  it  ?  Some  of  you  have 
pronounced  against  Christianity,  but  you  have  never 
yet  heard  the  chief  witness.  The  healed  man — 
that  is  the  unanswered,  the  unanswerable  argument 
for  Christianity.  How  to  account  for  him — that  is 
the  unsolved,  the  insoluble  problem  of  unbelief, 
and  a  problem,  moreover,  which  unbelief  has  never 
yet  fairly  tackled.  There  is  Colonel  Ingersoll, 
for  example ;  he  makes  huge  jokes  about  the 
"  mistakes  of  Moses "  ;  for  a  whole  hour  by  the 
clock  he  empties  upon  the  Bible  the  little  vials  of 


1 68  Fii'st  Things  First 


his  scornful  mirth  ;  and  the  reports  of  his  addresses 
are  punctuated  with  "  laughter,"  "  loud  laughter," 
''  roars  of  laughter."  But  when  the  fun  is  over, 
does  not  the  question  still  remain,  What  about  the 
healed  man  ?  I  often  think  I  should  like  to  see 
the  Colonel  face  to  face  with  such  a  man  as  I  have 
in  my  mind.  I  think  he  would  say  to  the  witty 
sceptic  something  like  this  :  "  Well,  sir,  this  is  all 
very  clever,  but  now  listen  to  me.  Two  years  ago  I 
was  a  poor  devil-hunted  wretch  ;  the  drink  had  made 
of  me  a  fiend,  and  of  my  home  a  hell.  I  had  a 
wife,  but  she  had  no  husband.  I  had  children, 
but  they  had  no  father.  I  was  a  brute,  and  worse 
than  a  brute.  But  Jesus  Christ  met  me,  and  now 
everything  is  changed.  You  can  see  it  for  yourself 
if  you  will.  Now,  sir,  you  have  '  explained  '  a  great 
deal,  will  you  'explain'  ME  ?  "  "  Seeing  the  man  that 
was  healed  " — yes,  but  that  is  the  very  thing  men  of 
the  stamp  of  Colonel  Ingersoll  will  not  see  ;  the 
healed  man  is  persistently  ignored — "  they  could 
say  nothing  against  it  "  :  not  a  very  satisfactory 
result,  yet  if  all  felt  at  least  a  like  obligation  to 
silence  !  That  some  should  pass  Christianity  by  and 
neglect  it  is  not  perhaps  greatly  to  be  wondered 
at  ;  but  that  any  should  greet  it  with  scorn  and 
contempt,  that  they  should  take  up  arms  against  it, 
this  surely  is  passing  strange.  To  break  down  the 
fence  that  has  kept  the  wanderer  from  the  danger- 
ous pitfall,  to  put  out  the  light  that  has  warned  the 
mariner  off  the  sunken  reef,  to  tear  down  the  hut 
that  has   sheltered   the  traveller  from   the  pitiless 


The  Unansiverable  Argument        169 


storm,  to  smash  in  pieces  the  old  medicine  bottles 
that  have  brought  healing  and  strength  to  the  sin- 
sick  soul, — to  seek  to  do  all  this,  and  to  have 
nothing,  absolutely  nothing,  to  offer  in  their  stead, 
is  there  any  sorrier,  more  thankless  task  to  which 
a  man  can  put  his  hand  ?  If  only  they  who  seek 
to  do  these  things  could  for  one  moment  see 
matters  from  the  healed  man's  point  of  view! 
Once  when  Jesus  had  opened  the  eyes  of  a  man 
born  blind,  His  enemies  said  of  Him,  "He  hath  a 
devil,  and  is  mad  :  why  hear  ye  Him  ?  "  I  have 
often  wondered  what  the  man  whose  eyes  had  been 
opened  thought  of  that.  My  friend,  if  you  can  as 
yet  go  no  farther,  at  least,  when  you  see  the  healed 
man  standing  in  the  midst,  say  nothing  against  it. 

But  I  cannot  break  off  there.  It  is  not  enough 
for  me  that  I  shut  you  up  in  a  corner  and  compel 
you  to  be  silent,  or  at  most  wring  from  you  a  re- 
luctant admission  that  possibly  there  may  be 
"  something  in  religion  "  after  all.  I  want  you  to 
come  to  the  healed  man's  Christ,  and  to  try  for 
yourself  the  healed  man's  salvation. 

Is  not  your  need  that  of  the  lame  man — 
strength,  moral  strength,  will-power  ?  And  if  you 
do  not  get  it  from  Christ,  where  will  you  get  it  ? 
In  what  other  name  given  among  men  is  there 
salvation?  I  can  fancy  others  besides  Peter 
standing  over  that  helpless  cripple  at  the  temple 
gate  and  speaking  to  him.  Here  is  one  Hope- 
less, sad-eyed,  and  muttering  scraps  of  science: 


1 70  First  Things  First 

"  In  the  name  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  thou 
art  damned.  Weak  art  thou,  and  to  the  wall 
shalt  thou  go."  And  this  is  Mr.  Rigidly-righteous, 
with  knitted  brow  and  thin,  stern  lips :  "  Who 
shall  pity  thee  ?  Thy  own  sin  hath  brought  thee 
here.  Evil  hast  thou  done,  and  the  penalty  must 
thou  pay."  Here,  too,  comes  Miss  Philanthropy, 
with  her  good-natured  smile  and  easy  ways : 
'  Silver  and  gold  will  I  give  thee  ;  another  crutch, 
better  and  stronger,  for  thee  to  hobble  along  with." 
And  there  is  another  who,  with  his  little  load  of 
petty  maxims,  might  have  dwelt  in  Bunyan's 
village  of  Morality  :  "  In  the  name  of  morality,  in 
the  name  of  social  respectability,  in  thy  own  name 
stand  upon  thy  feet ;  walk  ;  be  good  ;  henceforth 
sin  no  more."  But  never  does  the  lame  man  re- 
ceive strength.  Now  let  Peter  speak  :  "  In  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Nazareth,  rise  up  and 
walk.  .  .  .  And  immediately  his  feet  and  ankle- 
bones  received  strength." 

"  To  ask  alms" — the  cripple  hoped  for  nothing 
beyond  that,  and  it  is  all  that  anything  short  of 
the  Gospel  can  give.  It  alleviates,  it  soothes,  but 
it  cannot  cure.  It  puts  its  handful  of  snow  on 
the  fevered  brow,  but  the  disease  itself  lies  too  deep 
for  its  touch.  It  props  up  the  lame  with  its 
crutches  ;  it  can  never  give  strength  to  the  feet. 
None  but  Christ  can  do  that. 

Then  why  do  you  not  come  to  Christ  ?  Surely 
this  is  a  reasonable  appeal  to  make.  Despite  all 
that  has  been  so  often  urged  to  the  contrary,  I  fear 


The  Unanswerable  Argument        171 

some  of  you  are  still  haunted  by  the  delusion  that 
in  order  to  receive  the  blessing  of  Christ  we  must 
be  able  to  thread  our  way  through  certain  elabo- 
rate intellectual  processes  ;  there  must  first  be  the 
submission  of  the  mind  to  a  number  of  more  or  less 
difficult  theological  dogmas.  Nothing  of  the  kind  ! 
Let  me  tell  you  why  I  am  a  Christian.  It  is  not 
simply  because  my  mind  has  been  satisfied  as  to 
the  truth  of  certain  doctrines  concerning  God,  the 
creation,  the  Bible,  the  future,  and  so  on.  No 
degree  of  intellectual  conviction  on  these  points 
could  have  ever  made  me  a  Christian.  No  ;  I  am 
a  Christian  because,  if  I  know  myself,  I  want, 
above  everything  else,  to  live  a  good  and  useful 
life,  and  my  own  experience  has  proved  to  me 
that  I  can  only  do  this  in  the  measure  in  which  I 
bow  to  Christ,  and  make  Him  King  and  Lord  of 
my  whole  being. 

And  I  make  my  appeal  to  you  on  precisely 
the  same  ground.  I  absolutely  refuse  to  be  drawn 
off  into  the  discussion  of  questions  which,  whatever 
intellectual  interest  they  may  possess,  are  just 
now  and  at  this  stage  wholly  irrelevant.  I  pin 
you  down  to  the  facts  about  yourself  and  Jesus 
Christ.  There,  on  the  one  side,  is  your  need,  real 
and  desperate  ;  there,  on  the  other,  is  Christ's  prof- 
fered help,  and  behind  Him  the  saints  of  sixty 
generations,  affirming  that  what  He  promises  He  is 
able  to  perform.  Will  you  make  the  venture  ?  If 
it  comes  to  naught,  it  will  but  leave  you  where 
you  are  now  ;    if  it  succeeds,  you  will   get  what 


172  First  Things  First 

most  of  all  you  need.  But,  once  more  I  beseech 
you,  keep  your  eye  fixed  on  the  main  thing  ;  do 
not  be  led  away  on  mere  side  issues. 

I  talked  with  a  man  some  few  days  ago  who 
had  become  the  victim  of  a  habit  that  was  threat- 
ening him  with  ruin.  When  I  spoke  to  him  of 
the  power  of  religion,  he  raised  the  old  stock-in- 
trade  difficulties  about  the  Old  Testament.  He 
was  a  poor  drowning  wretch,  quarrelling  with  his 
life-belt.  And  that  is  what  some  of  you  are 
doing.  Put  it  on,  man  ;  put  it  on  !  It  has  kept 
many  a  man's  head  above  water,  and,  if  you  will 
wear  it,  it  will  keep  yours. 

"  The  man  was  above  forty  years  old,  on  whom 
this  miracle  of  healing  was  showed."  And  the 
meaning  of  that  for  us  is  just  this  :  that  however 
long-standing,  however  deep-rooted  our  malady 
may  be,  it  is  not  too  desperate  for  Him.  "  Who- 
soever will  may  come  and  be  healed  "  ;  and  if  only 
we  have  not  lost  the  power  to  "  will,"  then  we  are 
not  too  bad,  and  it  is  not  too  late.  "  To-day  if  ye 
will  hear  His  voice,  harden  not  your  hearts." 


THE   NAMELESS   PROPHET:  A   STUDY 
IN  CONSCIENCE 


"  And,  be  It  old,  flier e  came  a  7/1  aji  of  God  out  of  Judah  by  the  woj'd 
of  the  Lord  iinto  Bcth-el.'''' — I  Kings  xiii.  i. 


XII 

THE   NAMELESS  PROPHET:  A   STUDY 
IN  CONSCIENCE 

THIS  "  man  of  God  "  is  not  one  of  the  great 
figures  of  the  Bible.  Nobody  thinks  of 
putting  him  by  the  side  of  Moses,  or  Elijah,  or 
Isaiah.  Beyond  what  is  told  us  of  him  in  this 
one  chapter,  we  know  nothing  ;  even  his  name  is 
lost.  There  is,  it  is  true,  a  reference  to  his  tomb 
in  the  Second  Book  of  Kings  (xxiii.  17),  but  it  is 
still  only  a  nameless  slab.  Nevertheless,  there  is 
much  that  we  may  learn  alike  from  the  story  of 
his  weakness  and  of  his  strength.  His  message 
is  indeed  no  new  one,  yet  perhaps  the  very  un- 
familiarity  of  his  face  and  strangeness  of  his 
voice  may  gain  for  him  a  hearing  where  others 
better  known  would  fail. 

In  order  the  better  to  appreciate  the  prophet's 
message,  let  us  glance  for  a  moment  at  the  cir- 
cumstances out  of  which  the  events  of  this  chapter 
arose.  It  was  a  momentous  period  in  the  history 
of  the  people  of  God.     The  folly  of  Rehoboam, 


1 76  First  Things  First 

the  son  of  Solomon,  had  ended  in  the  revolt  of 
the  Ten  Tribes  and  the  rending  of  the  kingdom. 
Judah  alone  remained  faithful  to  the  house  of 
David.  The  rival  kingdom  of  Israel  had  been 
established  in  the  north,  and  Jeroboam  had  been 
elected  its  first  king. 

Of  the  results  that  followed  this  unhappy 
division  we  are  concerned  now  with  but  one.  So 
great  a  political  revolution  could  not  but  affect 
very  deeply  the  religious  life  of  the  tribes  who 
thus  broke  away  from  their  old  allegiance.  Of  that 
life  Jerusalem  had  been  hitherto  the  centre.  There 
was  the  Temple,  there  the  priests,  there  the  place 
where  men  ought  to  worship.  But  Jerusalem  was 
now  no  longer  theirs  ;  it  lay  beyond  their  boundary 
in  a  hostile  territory.  The  significance  of  all  this 
so  far-seeing  a  monarch  as  Jeroboam  was  not  slow 
to  recognise.  On  the  one  hand,  he  saw  that  it 
would  never  do  to  allow  his  people  to  continue  to 
go  up  to  Jerusalem  to  worship.  "  Let  Jerusalem 
remain  the  religious  capital  of  the  two  states,"  he 
argued,  pointedly  enough,  "  and  she  will  soon 
again  be  the  political  capital  also."  "  If,"  he  said, 
"  this  people  go  up  to  offer  sacrifices  in  the  house 
of  the  Lord  at  Jerusalem,  then  shall  the  heart  of 
this  people  turn  again  unto  their  lord,  even  unto 
Rehoboam  king  of  Judah  ;  and  they  shall  kill 
me,  and  return  to  Rehoboam  king  of  Judah."  ^ 
On  the  other  hand,  Jeroboam  knew  full  well  that 
he  could  not  afford  to  ignore  the  religious  sentiment 

1  I  Kings  xii.  27. 


The  Nameless  Prophet  1 7  7 

of  his  people  :  like  some  modern  masters  of  state- 
craft, he  knew  the  worth  of  religion  as  a  politician, 
if  he  did  not  as  a  man.  We  are  often  told  now- 
adays to  make  our  politics  part  of  our  religion. 
Jeroboam  took  the  very  opposite  course  :  he  made 
his  religion  part  of  his  politics  ;  and  by  a  master- 
stroke of  political  expediency  he  established  the 
forms  of  religion  for  his  people  in  their  very 
midst.  He  made  two  golden  calves,  and  set  up 
the  one  in  Dan,  the  other  in  Bethel ;  he  selected 
priests  and  ordained  a  feast,  "  like  unto  the  feast 
that  is  in  Judah,"  and  himself  went  up,  on  the  day 
of  the  feast,  to  the  altar  which  he  had  made  in 
Bethel,  to  burn  incense.^ 

Then  it  was  that,  heralded  by  no  word  ot 
warning,  this  nameless  prophet  of  God  breaks  in 
upon  the  scene.  He  had  witnessed  the  idolatry 
of  Israel  till  he  could  bear  it  no  longer.  He  had 
heard  the  voice  of  God  bidding  him  cry  aloud 
and  spare  not,  till  the  word  burned  in  his  heart 
like  a  fire.  And  now  with  startling  abruptness, 
and  the  magnificent  daring  of  those  old  Hebrew 
prophets,  in  the  presence  of  the  king,  and  by  the 
side  of  his  own  altar,  he  denounces,  in  the  name  of 
God,  the  worship  which  he  has  set  up.  "  O  altar, 
altar,"  he  cried,  "  thus  saith  the  Lord  :  Behold, 
a  child  shall  be  born  unto  the  house  of  David, 
Josiah  by  name  ;  and  upon  thee  shall  he  sacrifice 
the  priests  of  the  high  places  that  burn  incense 
upon  thee,  and  men's  bones  shall  they  burn  upon 

^  I  Kings  xii.  28-32. 
N 


178  First  Things  First 

thee."  And  even  as  he  speaks,  the  altar  is  rent 
and  the  ashes  poured  out.  It  was  like  a  bolt 
from  the  blue.  "  Lay  hold  on  him,"  cries  the  king  ; 
and,  too  maddened  with  rage  to  wait  for  his 
command  to  be  obeyed,  he  thrust  forth  his  own 
hand  to  seize  the  prophet.  But  in  a  moment  it 
is  stiff  and  withered,  and  he  cannot  take  it  back 
again  to  himself.  The  prophet  has  done  his 
plain  but  difficult  duty,  and  God  has  vindicated 
His  servant. 

And  now  see  how  the  king  changes  his  tone. 
He  "  said  unto  the  man  of  God,  Intreat  now  the 
favour  of  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  pray  for  me,  that 
my  hand  may  be  restored  me  again."  And  the 
prophet  prayed,  and  it  was  so.  "  And  the  king 
said  unto  the  man  of  God,  Come  home  with 
me,  and  refresh  thyself,  and  I  will  give  thee  a 
reward."  It  is  ever  the  world's  way  ;  it  will  bully 
its  prophets,  and  seek  to  gag  and  silence  them, 
and  when  that  is  useless  it  will  cringe  and  fawn, 
and  slip  its  petty  bribes  into  their  hand  :  "  See, 
I  will  give  thee  a  reward.  Prophesy  unto  us 
smooth  things."  But  this  man  of  God  is  as  proof 
against  flattery  as  against  fear.  He  said  unto  the 
king,  "  If  thou  wilt  give  me  half  thine  house,  I 
will  not  go  in  with  thee,  neither  will  I  eat  bread 
nor  drink  water  in  this  place :  for  so  was  it 
charged  me  by  the  word  of  the  Lord,  saying. 
Thou  shalt  eat  no  bread,  nor  drink  water,  neither 
return  by  the  way  that  thou  earnest." 

One  could  wish    that  the  story  ended    there. 


The  Nameless  Prophet  179 


But,  alas  !  the  clay  mingled  with  the  metal,  the 
mud  with  the  marble ;  and  the  day  that  had 
opened  so  splendidly  hastened  to  a  mean  and 
mournful  close.  Yet  do  not  let  us  withhold  from 
this  prophet  the  meed  of  admiration  that  is  his 
due.  I  remember  hearing  a  minister  pray  that 
we  might  have  strength  to  speak  the  difficult  right 
word,  to  do  the  difficult  right  deed.  Once,  at  least, 
that  power  had  been  this  man's.  Therein  his  life 
was  redeemed  from  utter  failure.  Surely  there 
was  something  of  the  true  moral  hero  in  him. 
Men  who  can  take  their  stand  as  he  did  are  a 
public  conscience  ;  they  are  the  salt  to  keep  a 
nation's  life  sweet  and  good  ;  they  are  a  break- 
water against  the  fierce,  swift  tides  of  national 
wrongdoing.  We  may  not,  and  we  cannot,  forget 
the  prophet's  after  failure ;  but  in  the  moment 
when  he  withstood  Jeroboam  to  his  face,  this 
nameless  man  of  God  was  no  unworthy  fore- 
runner of  Elijah  and  Isaiah. 

Now  let  us  turn  to  the  other  side  of  the  story. 
There  is  no  need  to  linger  over  its  details.  The 
man  of  God  set  out  on  his  homeward  journey. 
But  in  the  meanwhile  tidings  of  his  remarkable 
errand  had  come  to  an  old  prophet  who  dwelt  in 
Bethel.  No  sooner  does  he  learn  what  has  hap- 
pened than  he  goes  in  search  of  the  man  of  Judah. 
When  he  has  found  him,  he  prefers  a  similar 
request  to  Jeroboam's :  "  Come  home  with  me, 
and  eat  bread "  ;  and  receives  a  similar  answer  : 
"  I  may  not  return  with  thee,  nor  go  in  with  thee  : 


i8o  First  Things  First 


neither  will  I  eat  bread  nor  drink  water  with  thee 
in  this  place  :  for  it  was  said  to  me  by  the  word 
of  the  Lord,  Thou  shalt  eat  no  bread  nor  drink 
water  there,  nor  turn  again  to  go  by  the  way  that 
thou  earnest."  "  But,"  urges  the  old  man,  "  I 
also  am  a  prophet  as  thou  art ;  and  an  angel  spake 
unto  me  by  the  word  of  the  Lord,  saying,  Bring 
him  back  with  thee  into  thine  house,  that  he  may 
eat  bread  and  drink  water."  Then  the  younger 
man  yields,  and  the  two  go  back  together.  "  But 
he  lied  unto  him." 

Why  this  man  of  Bethel  was  so  anxious  to 
persuade  his  brother  prophet  we  are  not  told,  and 
it  is  not  worth  while  to  guess.  But  is  there  not 
something  unutterably  sad  in  the  picture  of  that 
old  man  himself  leading  the  way  into  the  crooked 
path  of  evil  ?  We  are  all  of  us  ready  to  deal 
charitably  with  the  blunders  of  youth.  "  God 
Himself" — it  is  one  of  Mr.  Barrie's  beautiful  say- 
ings— "  is  willing  to  give  a  second  chance  to  one- 
and-twenty."  But  what  shall  we  say  when  our 
confidence  in  age,  our  trust  in  gray  hairs,  is  so 
shamefully  abused.  It  is  sad  enough,  God  knows, 
when  youth  leads  youth  astray  ;  but  what  when 
age  itself  is  the  corrupter,  when  it  laughs  at  the 
tender  sensitiveness  of  youth,  and  sneers  down  its 
heaven-sent  enthusiasms  ?  Oh,  you  gray-headed 
men  and  women,  I  know  not  how  God  Himself 
will  forgive  you  if  in  this  way  you  are  doing  the 
devil's  work  !  It  was  of  such  as  you  that  Christ 
said  that  it  were  better  for  you  that  a  millstone 


The  Nameless  Prophet  1 8 1 

were  hanged  about  your  neck,  and  you  were  cast 
into  the  depths  of  the  sea. 

The  rest  of  the  story  is  soon  told.  Seated  at 
the  table  together,  a  sudden  inspiration  seizes  the 
old  prophet,  and,  with  a  touch  of  terrible  irony,  he 
is  made  the  messenger  of  death  to  the  man  he  has 
deceived.  Then  the  simple  meal  is  ended,  and 
the  younger  man  goes  forth  to  meet  his  doom. 
And  when  a  few  hours  later  it  is  whispered 
through  the  little  town  that  a  man  has  been  killed 
by  a  lion,  the  old  prophet  needs  no  one  to  tell 
him  who  it  is.  He  dropped  an  unavailing  tear  on 
the  grave  of  the  man  he  had  wronged.  "  When  I 
am  dead,"  he  said,  "  then  bury  me  in  the  sepulchre 
wherein  the  man  of  God  is  buried  ;  lay  my  bones 
beside  his  bones  "  ;  and  there  the  story  ends. 

What  is  the  lesson  of  it  for  us  ?  This,  that 
for  us  God's  word  to  us  is  final.  This  prophet 
had  a  command  from  God  ;  but  he  let  himself  be 
argued  out  of  his  convictions,  and  there  is  the 
result. 

It  may  be  said  that  this  man  of  God  had 
means  of  knowing  the  will  of  God  which  are  no 
longer  within  our  reach.  That  matters  nothing, 
even  if  it  be  true.  God  speaks  to  us  not  less 
certainly  than  He  spoke  to  the  greatest  of  the 
prophets.  Conscience  is  the  voice  of  God  in  the 
soul ;  and  the  lesson  of  this  man's  sad  fall  is  just 
this,  that  above  that  word  of  God  in  the  heart 
there  is  nothing.  Argue  with  it,  silence  it,  go 
past  it  or  behind  it,  and  you  are  undone. 


1 82  First  Things  First 

Yet  do  not  misunderstand.  When  I  say  that 
conscience  is  supreme,  I  mean  that  its  decision  is 
supreme  for  me^  and  for  me  now.  It  is  not, 
therefore,  necessarily  supreme  for  another,  or  even 
for  me  always.  More  light  to-morrow  may  mean 
a  new  duty  to-morrow.  But  as  conscience  directs 
to-day  so  must  be  my  life  to-day. 

Now,  as  I  said  at  the  beginning,  there  is 
nothing  new  in  this.  The  only  kind  of  "  distinc- 
tion "  which  this  narrative  can  claim  as  an  illus- 
tration of  an  old  truth  lies,  perhaps,  in  the  fact 
that  the  tempter  came  arrayed  as  an  angel  of  light  ; 
the  light  that  led  astray  seemed  as  light  from 
heaven.  The  man  of  God,  who  had  stood 
undaunted  before  a  king,  neither  to  be  bullied 
into  silence  nor  to  be  coaxed  into  compliance, 
yields  to  a  prophet.  "  He  is  older,  wiser  than  I," 
— so  he  may  have  argued  with  himself, — "  is  he 
not  a  prophet  also?  Is  he  not  as  likely  as  I  to 
know  what  is  right  ?  Why  should  I  pit  my  word, 
my  conviction  against  his  ?  " 

Have  we  never  argued  so?  Some  course  of 
action  is  suggested  to  us.  We  have  our  doubts 
about  it — very  decided  scruples,  it  may  be  ;  but 
we  take  it,  and  screen  ourselves  behind  another's 
example  :  "  He  is  a  good  man,  and  he  does  it ; 
why  may  not  I  ?  "  Have  we  never  argued  so,  I 
say  ?  Then  the  answer  is  brief,  simple,  irresistible  : 
we  must  obey  our  own  conscience,  we  must  be 
true  to  our  own  conviction,  just  because  it  is  ours, 
because  it  is  God's  voice  to  us.      With  God's  word 


The  Nameless  Prophet  183 


to  another,  real  or  imaginary,  we  have  nothing 
whatever  to  do,  so  long  as  we  have  a  clear  word 
of  our  own  to  guide  us. 

Let  me  take  one  simple  illustration.  A  young 
man  has,  let  us  say,  very  strong  scruples  about 
theatre-going.  But  one  day  he  reads  in  a  news- 
paper that  this  or  that  eminent  minister  was  at 
the  play  last  week  ;  and  then  with  that  newspaper 
paragraph  he  smothers  the  voice  that  says  he 
ought  not.  Understand  I  am  not  discussing  a 
particular  question,  but,  what  is  far  more  important, 
I  am  trying  to  establish  a  great  moral  principle 
valid  for  a  hundred  questions,  and  I  say,  let  no 
man's  words,  no  man's  life,  however  great  and  good 
he  may  be,  override  your  own  clear  convictions. 
He  who  does  what  you  are  not  free  to  do  may  be 
in  every  respect  a  better  man  than  you  are — a 
man  whose  shoe-latchet  you  are  not  worthy  to 
stoop  down  and  unloose ;  and  you  may  shrink 
from  the  unspoken  judgment  upon  his  life  which 
your  action  seems  to  pronounce  ;  but  you  have  no 
alternative  ;  you  may  not  follow  his  example.  The 
road  that  way  leads  not  to  moral  freedom,  but  to 
moral  death.  "  To  thine  own  self  be  true  " — it  is 
God's  eternal  law,  and  outside  of  it  there  is  no 
safety. 

Two  questions  which  the  reading  of  this  narra- 
tive very  naturally  suggests  I  must  attempt  briefly 
to  answer  before  I  conclude. 

I.  Was  it  not,  so  it  may  be  asked,  the  veriest 
of  trifles  over  which  this  moral  struggle  was  fought 


184  First  Things  First 

and  lost — a  mere  question  of  eating  and  drinking  ? 
"  Trifle,"  did  you  say  ?  But  what  if  behind  that 
trifle  there  "  lurk  the  whole  question  of  the  soul's 
loyalty  to  known  truth  "  ?  I  passed  last  summer 
through  the  little  Swiss  town  of  Altdorf.  It  was 
there,  according  to  the  famous  old  legend,  that  the 
tyrant  Gessler  hung  up  his  hat  for  the  villagers  to 
bow  to  as  they  passed.  It  was  a  very  little  thing 
to  be  told  to  do,  and  it  is  no  wonder  if  most 
of  them  thought, "  Better  bow  your  head  than  lose 
it."  But  one  man  there  was — so  at  least  the 
story  runs — who  saw  the  full  meaning  of  that 
simple  act :  to  bow  to  Gessler's  cap  meant  sub- 
mission to  the  Austrian  yoke  ;  and  the  proud  soul 
of  William  Tell  refused  to  bend.  Ah  !  yes  ;  a 
very  tiny  straw  may  be  enough  to  show  which 
way  the  wind  blows,  and  the  mightiest  issues  may 
lie  wrapped  up  in  what  seem  the  meanest  trifles. 
Europe  is  not  all  Mont  Blancs  ;  we  have  many  a 
mile  of  flat  land  around  Edinburgh,  but  only  one 
Arthur's  Seat ;  and  the  lives  of  most  of  us  are 
humdrum  and  commonplace  enough.  We  have  to 
fight  our  Waterloos  over  trifles  ;  and  if  we  are 
careless  about  these,  I  tell  you  it  will  go  hardly 
with  us  in  the  great  battle  of  life. 

2.  Again,  it  may  perhaps  be  asked,  was  not 
the  man  of  God  in  our  narrative  over-scrupulous  ? 
Why  should  he  not  have  eaten  and  drunk  at  the 
old  prophet's  invitation  ?  Is  it  right  to  allow  our 
conscience  to  be  burdened  with  unreasonable 
commands,  with  senseless  prohibitions  ? 


The  Nameless  Prophet  185 

I  grant  the  possibility  of  an  over-development 
of  moral  sensitiveness.  I  do  not  know  that  many 
of  us  are  in  danger  of  it,  but  undoubtedly  there 
are  some  who  suffer  from  what  a  writer  in  the 
Spectator  has  called  hypertrophy  of  conscience.^ 
And  parents  and  teachers  do  well  to  take  heed 
lest  by  needless  injunctions  and  restrictions  they 
foster  this  wholly  unreal,  diseased  form  of  con- 
scientiousness. Nevertheless,  it  remains  true,  at  all 
costs  conscience  must  be  obeyed.  The  deliverance 
we  seek,  whichever  way  it  may  come,  can  never 
come  by  the  path  of  disobedience. 

How  the  prophet  became  convinced  that  he 
must  neither  eat  bread  nor  drink  water  in  Bethel, 
nor  return  by  the  way  which  he  came,  and  what 
was  the  purpose  of  such  a  command,  we  are  not 
told.  We  may  conjecture,  but  we  shall  as  likely 
be  wrong  as  right,  and  really  it  is  not  of  the 
slightest  consequence.  The  important  point  is 
this,  the  prophet  was  convinced,  convinced  that 
the  will  of  God  had  been  made  known  to  him  : 
"  So  was  it  charged  me  by  the  word  of  the  Lord 
...  it  was  said  to  me  by  the  word  of  the  Lord  ; " 
here  is  his  own  twice  -  repeated  declaration. 
You  may  say  he  was  mistaken  if  you  like,  yet  he 
believed  God  had  said  to  him,  "  This  thing  shalt 
thou  do,"  and  that  for  him  should  have  been  the 
end  of  all  controversy.      Hear,  then,  the  conclusion 

^  Hypertrophy  (a  medical  term)  is  the  exact  opposite  of  atrophy, 
and  means  an  abnormal  enlargement  (from  virep  over,  and  Tpo(f>ij 
nourishment). 


1 86  First  Things  First 

of  the  whole  matter  :  when  conscience  speaks,  we 
are  not  called  upon  to  justify  to  any  one,  not  even 
to  ourselves,  that  which  it  bids  us  do.  There  is 
one  and  but  one  safe  path,  and  it  is  the  path  of 
obedience. 

Do  you  remember  the  answer  of  Peter  and  the 
apostles  to  the  high  priest  ?  "  We  straitly  charged 
you,"  said  the  high  priest,  "  not  to  teach  in  this 
name  :  and,  behold,  ye  have  filled  Jerusalem  with 
your  teaching,  and  intend  to  bring  this  man's  blood 
upon  us."  "  We  must  obey  God  rather  than  inenl^ 
said  the  aoostles.  This  simple,  unconscious  hero- 
ism, that  casts  no  sidelong  glances  of  admiration 
at  itself  in  the  glass,  that  never  stops  to  think  how 
fine  a  thing  it  is  doing,  but  does  the  right  just 
because  it  is  right, — is  it  not  this  that  you  and  I 
need  ?  And  where  did  these  men  learn  it  ?  Let 
their  enemies  tell  us  :  "  And  when  they  saw  the 
boldness  of  Peter  and  John,  they  took  knowledge 
of  them,  that  they  had  been  with  Jesus."  There  is 
the  secret :  if  you  covet  this  holy  boldness,  be 
with  Jesus.  God  forgive  me  if  I  ever  preach  a 
sermon  that  does  not  help  somebody  to  get  nearer 
to  Him  ! 

And  there  is  more  in  this  perhaps  than  we 
think.  As  I  have  reminded  you  before,^  the 
greatest  forces  in  life  are  personal.  Our  lives  are 
fashioned  by  thoughts,  ideals,  books,  but  most  of 
all  by  living  men   who  love  us.      These  "  uphold 

^  See  page  109. 


The  Nameless  Prophet  187 

us,  cherish  us "  when  all  things  else  are  nothing. 
"  Quit  you  like  men,  be  strong  " — sometimes  the 
old  words  thrill  us  like  a  bugle-blast  at  early  morn  : 
no  task  is  too  difficult,  no  hill  too  steep.  And 
then  again  the  weary  feet  drag  heavily,  and  the 
tired  hands  fall  slack  and  nerveless  at  our  side. 
It  is  not  books,  or  examples,  or  precepts  we  want 
now — these  do  but  mock  us — but  the  helpful 
counsel,  the  strong  arm  of  the  living  voice,  the 
loving  friend  :  it  is  companionship,  friendship  we 
crave  for. 

Such  companionship,  such  friendship,  not  for 
difficult  hours  only,  but  for  all  life,  is  offered  to  you, 
"  The  strong  Son  of  God  "  says  to  us,  the  weakest 
and  unworthiest  of  us,  "  I  have  called  thee  friend." 
Will  you  make  that  friendship  yours  ?  Will  you 
seek  His  face  ?      Will  you  live  in  His  presence  ? 


MODERN    IDOLATRY 


Little  childi-en,  guard  yourselves  fi-om  idois.'''' — i  John  v,  21 


XIII 
MODERN    IDOLATRY 

THESE  are  John's  last  words  to  those  whom, 
in  his  affectionate,  old  man's  way,  he 
addresses  as  "  little  children  "  ;  probably  if  the 
books  of  the  Bible  were  arranged  in  the  order  in 
which  they  were  written,  they  would  be  seen  to  be 
the  last  words  of  Scripture  also. 

Whatever  wider  significance  we  may  give  to 
this  parting  injunction  of  the  Apostle's,  it  does  not 
seem  necessary  to  exclude  the  literal  meaning. 
John  was  writing  to  Christians  who  had  long  ago 
abandoned  all  worship  of  idols  of  gold  or  silver  or 
stone,  graven  by  art  and  device  of  man.  Yet  in 
such  a  city  as  Ephesus,  where,  hardly  more  than  a 
generation  ago,  such  a  scene  was  possible  as  Luke 
has  described  for  us  in  the  nineteenth  chapter  of 
the  Acts,  it  may  well  have  been  that  even  Christian 
men  still  needed  to  hear  the  old  command  :  "  Thou 
shalt  have  none  other  gods  beside  Me."  Neverthe- 
less it  was  not  only  against  such  idols  that  John 
was  warning  his  readers.      "  Idol"  in  his  vocabulary 


192  First  Things  First 

means  anything  that  comes  between  us  and  God, 
anything  that  takes  for  us  the  place  of  God.  John 
had  just  been  speaking  (in  the  verses  preceding 
my  text)  of  that  knowledge  of  the  true  God  unto 
which  in  Jesus  Christ  his  readers  had  attained  ; 
and  now  he  bids  them  take  heed  that  nothing 
and  nobody  come  between  them  and  Him.  His 
words  are  a  warning  against  idolatry  in  its  widest 
and  largest  meaning. 

But  before  I  pass  on  to  speak  of  these  words 
in  that  understanding  of  them,  there  is  one  other 
point  I  want  you  to  notice.  How  are  we  to 
explain  this  solemn  warning  against  idolatry  in 
an  epistle  which  pays  throughout  the  profoundest 
homage  to  Jesus  Christ  ?  It  is  worth  while 
observing  how  profound  that  homage  is.  Take 
passages  like  these,  culled  almost  at  random  : — 

"  Who  is  the  liar  but  he  that  denieth  that  Jesus 
is  the  Christ?" — ii.  22. 

"  Whosoever  believeth  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ 
is  begotten  of  God  " — v.  i .  . 

"  Hereby  know  ye  the  Spirit  of  God  :  every 
spirit  which  confesseth  that  Jesus  Christ  is  come 
in  the  flesh  is  of  God  :  and  every  spirit  which 
confesseth  not  Jesus  is  not  of  God" — iv.  2,  3. 

"  And  this  is  the  boldness  which  we  have 
toward  Him,  that,  if  we  ask  anything  according  to 
His  will.  He  heareth  us" — v.  14. 

"  Whosoever  shall  confess  that  Jesus  is  the  Son 
of  God,  God  abideth  in  him,  and  he  in  God  " — 
iv.  15. 


Modern  Idolatry  193 

What  are  we  to  make  of  this  ?  One  of  two 
things  :  either  John,  who  was,  remember,  for  three 
years  a  personal  follower  of  Christ's,  and  who 
writes  in  this  Epistle  from  first-hand  knowledge  of 
the  things  of  which  he  speaks,^ — either,  I  say,  John 
believed  that  Jesus  was  indeed  the  Son  of  God, 
and  Himself  equal  with  God,  or  he  stands  self- 
convicted  of  the  stupidest  inconsistency,  the  flattest 
blasphemy.  A  learned  Berlin  professor,^  who  has 
recently  been  lecturing  in  our  city,^  has  spoken  of 
Jesus  as  "  a  simple,  trustful  religious  genius, 
preaching  a  sweet  Gospel  of  the  love  of  God  to 
the  multitudes  of  Galilee."  ^  John  knew  no  such 
Jesus.  If  we  cannot  be  certain  of  that,  we  might 
despair  of  being  certain  of  anything.  I  have  read 
of  a  Roman  emperor  who  kept  a  statue  of  Jesus 
and  a  statue  of  Plato  side  by  side  in  his  pantheon. 
It  is  so  that  Dr.  Pfleiderer  treats  Jesus  ;  but,  since 
He  is  primus  mter pares,  He  gets  a  pedestal  twelve 
inches  bigger  than  the  rest.  Now  that  is  a 
doctrine  which  the  Christian  Church  from  the  first 
century  to  the  nineteenth  has  always  strenuously 
denied.  For  three  centuries  after  Christ  no 
Christian  thinker  dared  to  make  Him  one  in  a  row, 
as  Dr.  Pfleiderer  has  done.      The  New  Testament 

^  "  That  which  was  from  the  beginning,  that  which  we  have 
heard,  that  which  we  have  seen  with  our  eyes,  that  which  we  beheld, 
and  our  hands  handled,  concerning  the  Word  of  life  ....  declare 
we  unto  you  "  (i.  i,  3). 

2  Professor  Pfleiderer,  ^  Edinburgh. 

^  These  are  not  Dr.  Pfleiderer's  own  words,  but  express,  I  believe, 
his  views  with  perfect  accuracy. 

O 


1 94  First  Things  First 

writers  were  no  believers  in  "  hero-worship  "  ;  Paul 
and  Barnabas  reject  in  hot  haste  the  attempted 
sacrifice  of  the  multitudes  of  Lystra.  But  the 
homage  they  will  not  receive  for  themselves  they 
freely  pay  to  Christ.  John  warns  his  readers 
against  idols  ;  the  stern  monotheism  of  his  ancient 
faith  ran  in  his  very  blood,  and  yet,  with  no  sense 
of  inconsistency,  he  bids  them  bow  to  Jesus. 

I  do  not  want  to  seem  intolerant.  I  do  not 
want  to  put  my  Bible  under  a  glass  case  and  to 
say  to  the  critic,  "  Hands  off  there  !  "  Let  him 
sift  and  dissect  and  analyse  as  he  please.  But  if, 
when  his  work  is  done,  he  offers  me  some  poor 
pale  ghost,  and  says  "  this  is  your  Jesus  "  ;  if  he 
brings  me  back  a  faith  emptied  of  miracle,  of  prayer, 
of  immortality,  and  says  "this  is  His  Gospel," — 
no,  a  thousand  times  no  !  If  you  want  that  Christ, 
take  Him  ;  He  is  not  John's  Christ ;  He  is  not 
mine.  If  that  faith  can  help  you,  be  it  so  ;  lean 
upon  it  ;  but,  mark,  it  is  not  Christianity.  Call  it 
what  you  please,  but  do  not  steal  for  it  the 
Christian  name.  That  was  not  the  creed  of  the 
first  century  ;  it  is  not  the  creed  of  the  nineteenth. 
It  was  not  so  our  fathers  believed;  neither  so  will 
their  sons  believe  after  them.  Not  yet,  on  the 
world-scale  at  least,  has  this  new  gospel  proved 
itself  to  be  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to 
every  one  that  believeth. 

"  Little  children,  keep  yourselves  from  idols." 
Who  among  us  is  an   idolater  ?     "  Among  us  ?  " 


Modern  Idolatry  195 

Yes,  among  us.  "  But  we  know  that  an  idol  is 
nothing  in  the  world  ;  and  though  there  be  that 
are  called  gods,  whether  in  heaven  or  in  earth,  yet 
to  us  there  is  one  God,  the  Father.  We  subscribe 
to  Foreign  Missions,  we — "  But  stay  ;  do  not 
let  us  play  with  the  surface -meaning  of  words. 
Worship  is  a  thing  of  the  spirit.  What  a  man 
trusts  in,  that  is  his  god.  You  may  never  have 
bowed  the  knee  to  an  idol  made  with  hands,  and 
as  far  back  as  you  can  remember  you  may  have 
daily  bowed  the  knee  to  God,  and  yet  you  may  be 
an  idolater.  I  have  seen  a  great  congregation 
bow  as  the  preacher  said  "  Let  us  pray,"  and  it 
seemed  as  if  all  were  worshipping.  But  while 
man  looketh  on  the  outward  appearance,  God 
looketh  at  the  heart,  and  He  said,  "  This  people  " — 
this  man,  that  woman — "  honoureth  Me  with  their 
lips,  but  their  heart  is  far  from  Me."  When  the 
wise  men  come  seeking  the  infant  Saviour,  Herod 
bids  them  "  bring  me  word  that  I  may  come 
and  worship  Him  also "  ;  yet  all  the  while  his 
hand  is  feeling  for  his  sword,  that  he  may  redden 
it  in  little  children's  blood  !  Call  you  that 
worship  ? 

Put  these  two  words  of  the  Apostle  Paul's  side 
by  side  :  "  Paul,  a  servant  of  Jesus  Christ "  (Rom. 
i.  I )  ;  "  God  .  .  .  whom  I  serve  in  my  spirit "  {ib. 
i.  9).^  Whom  do  I  serve  ?  In  the  outer  sphere  of 
life,  in  the  eyes  of  men,  God.      But "  in  my  spirit," 


^  Note  the  correct  rendering  of  the  R.V.   "m  my  spirit,"  not 
^^with  my  spirit "  as  in  A.V. 


196  First  Things  First 

whom  ?  what  ?  For  remember,  as  some  one  has 
truly  said,  "  A  man's  true  worship  is  not  the 
worship  which  he  performs  in  the  public  temple, 
but  that  which  he  offers  down  in  that  little  private 
chapel  where  nobody  goes  but  himself."  ^  The 
deities  that  are  shrined  there,  these  be  thy  gods, 
be  thy  offerings  otherwhere  what  they  may. 

So  once  again  I  put  the  question,  Who  among 
us  is  an  idolater  ?  We  smile  when  we  are  told — 
to  take  but  one  instance  out  of  multitudes — of 
North  American  Indians  who  to  this  day  worship 
their  bow  and  arrows;  yet  theirs  is  an  idol  good  and 
benign  by  the  side  of  the  unclean  deities  that 
some  of  us  have  fashioned  for  ourselves,  and  are 
bowing  down  to  every  day.  Let  us  take  the  Bible 
in  our  hand  and  search  out  some  of  the  dark 
corners  of  our  hearts. 

"  Wlwse  god  is  their  belly."  ^  That  is  idolatry 
in  its  most  repulsive,  disgusting  form.  Gluttony, 
Drunkenness,  Lust — to  bow  down  before  these 
is  to  worship  the  Beast,  and  to  bear  his  mark  in 
our  foreheads.  Swift  and  terrible  is  the  retribution. 
When  Moses  came  down  from  the  mount  with  the 
two  tables  of  stone  in  his  hand,  and  saw  the 
dancing  and  heard  the  shouts  of  the  idol- 
worshippers,  we  are  told  that  "  he  took  the  calf 
which  they  had  made,  and  burnt  it  with  fire,  and 
ground  it  to  powder,  and  strewed  it  upon  the 
water,  and  made  the  children  of  Israel  drink  of  it." 
The  grim  irony  of  it !      Do  none  of  us  know  what 

1  Dr.  Maclaien.  ^  p^ii.  iii.  19. 


Modern  Idolatry  197 


it  is  to  have  that  bitter  draught  pressed  to  our  lips? 
"Thy  calf,  O  Samaria,  hath  kicked  thee  off"^ — 
we  need  no  preacher  to  tell  us  what  that  means. 
"  All  this  will  I  give  thee,"  said  the  tempter,  "  this 
— and  this — and  this — and  this — all  this  will  I 
give  thee  if  thou  wilt  fall  down  and  worship  me." 
You  struck  the  bargain,  and  there  you  stand  to-day 
a  befooled  and  cheated  man.  "  All  this  "  ?  what 
was  it  ?  A  passing  thrill — a  momentary  titillation 
of  a  nerve — Dead  Sea  fruit  that  turned  to  ashes 
in  your  mouth. 

"  Covetousness,  which  is  idolatryr  ^  Paul  tells 
the  Ephesians  that  the  covetous  man  is  an 
idolater;  writing  to  men  who  had  turned  from 
idols  to  serve  a  living  and  true  God,  he  yet  warns 
them  that  if  they  yield  to  covetousness  they  will 
become  entangled  again  in  the  yoke  of  idolatry. 
Does  not  that  word  smite  some  of  us  ?  We  never 
bowed  the  knee  to  Gluttony  or  Lust  or  Drunken- 
ness ;  we  do  not  sin  vulgarly  ;  we  even  look  down 
with  a  Pharisee's  proud  pity  upon  them  that  do. 
And  yet  all  the  week  through  and  all  the  year 
round  we  jostle  with  the  crowd  that  pay  their 
obsequious  homage  to  the  "  gilded  beast "  of 
wealth.  Of  all  forms  of  modern  idolatry  none  is 
more  fatal  than  this.  From  some  we  are  saved 
by  their  very  coarseness.  We  may  yield  once,  or 
even  twice,  but  their  unredeemed  vulgarity  becomes 
an  effectual   check.      But   the   appetite   of  avarice 

1  This  is  one  out  of  several  possible  renderings  of  a  difficult  text. 
2  Col.  iii.  5  ;  comp.  Eph.  v.  5. 


198  First  Things  First 

grows  by  what  it  feeds  on  ;  the  desire  to  get  is  a 
deadly  octopus  that  fastens  itself  upon  the  soul 
and  will  not  be  shaken  off.  "  And  the  Pharisees, 
who  were  lovers  of  money,  heard  all  these  things  ; 
and  they  scoffed  at  Him."  That  is  the  last 
penalty  of  the  mammon  -  worshipper  :  he  grows 
dead  to  all  things  else.  The  publican  and  harlot 
shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God  while  he  is 
shut  out,  while  he  does  not  so  much  as  know  that 
there  is  a  kingdom  to  be  entered.  "  Ye  cannot  " 
— not  simply  "  may  not,"  but  "  cannot " — "  serve 
God  and  mammon." 

"  And  Hezekiah  brake  in  pieces  the  brazen 
serpent  that  Moses  had  made :  for  unto  those  days 
the  children  of  Israel  did  burn  incense  to  it :  and  he 
called  it  Nehushtan!'  ^  Now  we  are  in  another 
world  altogether.  What  does  this  mean  ?  That 
it  is  possible  for  us  to  turn  even  the  sacred  things 
of  religion  into  idols  that  come  between  us  and 
God.  The  brazen  serpent  was  the  Divinely- 
appointed  symbol  of  a  Divine  act.  But  the 
children  of  Israel  made  of  it  a  fetish,  and  burned 
incense  to  it,  and  put  it  in  the  place  of  God. 
Then  arose  Hezekiah,  the  reformer  and  iconoclast, 
and  took  the  ancient  symbol  of  deliverance  into 
his  strong  hands  :  "  This  that  you  are  worshipping," 
he  cried,  "  what  is  it  ?  Nehushtan — a  piece  of 
brass " ;  and  he  brake  it  in  pieces  before  their 
eyes.  It  is  the  ever -recurring  danger  of  the 
Christian    Church,    to    allow     our     symbols,    our 

^  2  Kings  xviii.  4.     ("  Nehushtan,"  i.e.  a  piece  of  brass.) 


Modern  Idolatry  1 99 

sacraments,  our  services,  ay,  and  even  our  Bibles, 
to  come  between  us  and  the  living  God — so  to 
think  of  them  that  we  cease  to  think  of  Him. 
Every  one  who  knows  anything  of  contemporary 
religious  life,  especially  south  of  the  Border, 
knows  that  there  is  no  graver  peril  menacing  our 
faith  to-day  than  this  materialism  within  the 
Churches.  The  blessed  results  of  that  mighty 
spiritual  awakening  at  Oxford  fifty  years  or  so 
ago,  which  we  associate  with  the  names  of  New- 
man, Pusey,  and  Keble,  no  one,  Anglican  or 
Nonconformist,  can  wish  to  deny.  But  equally 
undeniable  is  it  that  in  these  latter  days  the  good 
seed  is  being  choked  by  those  enormous  and 
portentous  sacerdotal  and  sacramentarian  growths 
which  have  sprung  up  side  by  side  with  it.  We  have 
just  been  told  on  excellent  authority  ^  that  "  the 
number  of  Anglican  churches  in  England  and 
Wales  has  almost  doubled  since  1882,  and  is  now 
5957.  At  250  incense  is  used  ;  at  406  there  is 
a  daily  celebration  of  the  Holy  Eucharist ;  the 
much -discussed  'eastward  position'  is  adopted 
at  no  fewer  than  5037;  '  Eucharistic  vestments' 
are  worn  at  1370,  and  altar-lights  are  employed 
during  the  sacrament  of  the  Eucharist  at  2707." 
In  the  multiplication  of  Christian  churches  we 
may  all  heartily  rejoice  ;  for  the  rest,  I  frankly 
confess  it  brings  back  to  memory  a  saying  of 
Dr.  Marcus  Dods',  that  one  of  the  crying  needs  of 

^  See    The    Tourists     C/mrch    Guide,    by    Lord    Halifax.       My 
quotation  is  taken  from  the  Daily  Chronicle. 


200  First  Things  First 


the  Church  to-day  is  a  satirist.  That  these  mon- 
strous growths  which  are  darkening  the  very 
heavens  might  be  smitten  with  the  withering 
sarcasm  that  fell  from  the  lips  of  God's  prophet 
of  old  on  the  idols  of  the  heathen  !  We  may  be 
wrong,  but  to  some  of  us  it  seems  as  if  the  days 
were  fast  ripening  for  the  coming  of  another 
Hezekiah — another  Knox,  another  Cromwell  — 
who  shall  fling  our  once  cherished  symbols  to  the 
bats  and  the  moles,  and  cry,  "  Nehushtan  ! — in 
the  Lord  God  of  hosts  be  your  trust,  and  not  in 
these  things  !  "  "  Little  children,  keep  yourselves 
from  idols." 

I  have  only  touched  upon  one  or  two  of  the 
forms  of  our  modern  idolatry.  It  may  be  that  in 
none  of  these  forms  does  the  temptation  to  forget 
God  in  His  creatures  present  itself  to  us  in  its 
strongest  and  subtlest  form.  We  may  never 
have  been  in  danger  of  ecclesiastical  idolatry. 
"  The  narrowing  lust  of  gold "  may  never  have 
burned  in  our  souls.  From  idol -worship  in  its 
grosser,  coarser  forms  our  whole  nature  may 
recoil  with  honest  loathing.  And  yet  we  too  may 
be  offering  our  real  worship  to  an  idol  and  not  to 
God. 

Never,  perhaps,  have  we  held  in  so  high  esteem 
as  to-day  the  things  that  are  most  worthy  of  it. 
Writers  like  Wordsworth  and  Ruskin  have  opened 
our  eyes  to  the  beautiful  in  art  and  nature. 
Beauty  holds   us  to-day  with  a  spell   our  fathers 


Modern  Idolatry  201 

never  knew.  Literature,  too,  has  brought  its  price- 
less treasures  to  our  very  door  ;  and  now  the  very- 
poorest  and  humblest  of  us  may  tread  in  the  foot- 
steps of  Shakespeare  and  Milton,  of  Scott  and 
Tennyson,  and  think  after  them  the  thoughts  of 
the  wisest  and  best.  Then  comes  the  temptation, 
so  subtle  and  so  strong — how  subtle  and  how 
strong  let  them  say  who  have  felt  it — to  count 
the^e  things  the  first  things,  the  supreme  things 
in  life.  A  religious  faith — so  many  an  educated 
young  man  may  be  tempted  to  think — to  those 
whose  lives  are  starved  and  poor,  to  whom  it 
comes  as  their  one  escape  into  the  infinite  from 
the  narrow,  grimy  round  of  daily  toil,  may  be  of 
priceless  worth  ;  but  to  me  with  my  wider  outlook 
and  far-stretching  horizons  and  hundred  windows 
that  look  out  into  eternity,  what  can  it  bring  to 
me  ?  But  is  there  nothing  that  we  need  beyond 
what  these  things — art  and  literature  and  science 
— can  give  to  us  ?  Did  you  ever  ponder  this 
deep  saying,  "  They  that  make  them  shall  be 
like  unto  them ;  yea,  every  one  that  trusteth  in 
them  "  ?  Your  gods  cannot  lift  you  beyond  themselves. 
At  the  Art  Congress  in  Liverpool  in  1889,  Sir 
Frederick  Leighton  complained  that  in  so  many 
of  our  countrymen  "  the  perception  of  beauty  is 
blunt,  and  the  desire  for  it  sluggish  and  super- 
ficial ;"  and  he  contrasted  us  in  this  respect  with 
what  has  been  revealed  in  the  buried  ruins  of 
Pompeii,  where  even  "  the  appliances  of  the  kitchen 
and  pantry  form  a  museum  of  art  of  inexhaustible 


202  First  Things  First 

fascination."  We  may  frankly  admit  the  truth  of 
the  indictment ;  yet  no  one  knows  better  than  Sir 
Frederick  Leighton  that  even  in  beauty- loving 
Pompeii  abominations  flourished  that  it  is  a  shame 
even  to  speak  of,  and  that  pictures  have  been 
revealed  there  which  the  excavators  had  to  cover 
up  because  they  were  so  foul.  A  great  student 
of  Italian  life  and  literature  ^  has  told  us  that 
the  idolatry  of  beauty  in  Italy  ended  at  last  in  the 
degradation  both  of  art  and  character. 

To  say  that  art  and  literature  must  not  be  as 
gods  to  us,  is  not  to  deny  them  their  place  in  our 
life  :  it  is  to  deny  them  the  first  place.  The  great 
powers  of  the  world  in  which  we  now  pass  our 
days,  says  Dean  Church,  "  are  not  the  powers  for 
man — man  the  responsible,  man  the  sinner  and 
the  penitent,  who  may  be  the  saint — to  fall  down 
and  worship  .  .  .  they  at  least  feel  this  who  are 
drawing  near  to  the  unseen  and  unknown  beyond  ; 
they  to  whom,  it  may  be,  these  great  gifts  of  God, 
the  spell  and  wonder  of  art  and  literature,  the 
glory  and  sweet  tenderness  of  nature,  have  been 
the  brightness  and  joy  of  days  that  are  now  fast 
ending  ;  they  feel  there  is  yet  an  utter  want  of 
what  these  things  cannot  give ;  that  soul  and 
heart  want  something  yet  deeper,  something 
more  lovely,  something  more  Divine — that  which 
will  realise  man's  ideals,  that  which  will  com- 
plete and  fulfil  his  incompleteness  and  his  help- 
lessness— yes^  the  real  likeness,  in  thought  and 
^  Dean  Church. 


Modern  Idolatry  203 

will    and    character,    to     the    goodness    of   Jesus 
Christr  1 

I  claim  the  first  place  for  my  Lord.  I  may 
not  have  named  your  idol  by  name  ;  but  whatever 
it  be,  make  haste  to  put  it  from  you.  Till  then 
your  life  is  as  a  kingdom  where  the  wrong  man  is 
on  the  throne  ;  there  can  be  no  settled  peace  till 
He  whose  right  it  is  to  reign  come  to  His  own. 
Make  Him  first  in  everything.  Nay,  He  can  take 
no  other  place.  It  cuts  me  to  the  heart  when  I 
plead  with  you  to  give  up  all  and  follow  Christ, 
and  you  say,  "  Yes,  yes  ;  Christ  was  a  great  and 
good  man  ;  the  greatest  and  the  best  of  men, 
indeed."  He  does  not  want  your  patronage  :  He 
calls  for  your  submission.  Do  not  bring  to  Him 
the  little  penny-pieces  of  your  respect,  saying, 
"  Hail,  Master,  this  will  we  give  Thee."  You 
yourselves  are  His :  render,  therefore,  to  this 
Caesar  the  things  that  are  His. 

"  The  dearest  idol  I  have  known, 
Whate'er  that  idol  be. 
Help  me  to  tear  it  from  Thy  throne 
And  worship  only  Thee." 

*  Rather  a  long  quotation,  but  I  let  it  stand  as  one  of  the  last 
utterances  of  one  of  the  finest  Christian  scholars  of  his  generation 
(see  p.  53).     The  italics  in  the  last  sentence  are  mine. 


A  YOUNG   MAN'S  DIFFICULTIES   WITH 
HIS   BIBLE 


XIV 

A  YOUNG  MAN'S  DIFFICULTIES  WITH 
HIS   BIBLE. 

[The  following  address  was  delivered  at  a  usual  Sunday  evening 
service  in  answer  to  a  number  of  questions  addressed  to  me  privately 
by  young  men.  This  fact  is  the  explanation  of  the  choice  of 
subjects  dealt  with.  To  many  of  my  readers  the  discussion  may 
seem  stale  and  profitless,  and,  I  admit,  had  the  points  been  of  my 
own  choosing  they  would  have  been  very  different.  But  I  think  it 
best  to  allow  the  address  to  remain  as  it  was  delivered,  not  without 
the  hope  that,  however  useless  the  first  part  may  prove,  the  con- 
siderations urged  in  the  second  will  be  felt  to  be  valid  by  all  who 
have  difficulties  with  their  Bibles  of  whatsoever  kind.] 

I  PROPOSE  in  this  address  to  deal  with  a  little 
batch  of  questions  which  I  have  received 
from  various  correspondents — all  of  them,  I  be- 
lieve, young  men. 

But  first  let  me  say  with  what  honest  delight 
I  always  receive  communications  of  this  kind. 
When  Christ  was  here  amongst  men,  the  people 
He  drew  to  Him  were  people  in  difficulty  ;  and  for 
a  Christian  minister  there  can  be  no  worse  punish- 
ment than  to  be  let  alone.     What  vexes  me  is  that 


2o8  First  Things  First 

when  inquirers  bring  their  difficulties,  they  so 
often  think  it  necessary  to  preface  them  with 
apologies.  Fancy  any  one  in  trouble  going  to 
Jesus  with  a  "  sorry  to  disturb  you,  Sir,"  on  his 
lips  !  What  would  have  "  disturbed  "  Christ — and 
what  ought  to  disturb  us — would  have  been  if 
nobody  had  disturbed  Him.  I  always  remember 
the  saying  of  a  good  old  Methodist  preacher : 
"  The  man  that  wants  me  is  the  man  I  want." 

The  points  raised  by  my  correspondents  are 
none  of  them  "new.  Yet  the  difficulties  are  evi- 
dently felt  as  real ;  and  they  are  urged  with 
genuine  sincerity  and  earnestness.  I  will  try  to 
deal  with  them  in  a  similar  spirit.  The  plan  I 
shall  adopt  is  this  :  first,  we  will  look  at  the  diffi- 
culties singly,  and  then  we  will  ask,  how  should 
the  existence  of  these  affect  our  personal  relation  to 
the  Gospel  of  Christ  ?  "  The  Bible,"  says  one  of 
my  correspondents,  "  is  my  stumbling-block "  ;  I 
shall  try  to  show  you  that  even  if,  as  is  likely 
enough,  I  say  little  to  remove  your  difficulties, 
there  is  still  no  good  reason  why  you  should  not 
enter  at  once  the  service  of  Christ. 


I.  The  first  point  to  be  dealt  with  is  not 
exactly  a  Biblical  difficulty,  but  I  meet  with  it 
so  often,  and  as  it  is  raised  again  in  this  corre- 
spondence, I  cannot  pass  it  by  without  a  word, 
'"  What,"    says   one  of    my    querists,   "  about    the 


Bible  Difficulties  209 


evil  lives  of  so  many  professed  Christians  ?  "  and 
he  clinches  his  question  with  a  reference  to  a 
shameful  moral  delinquency  on  the  part  of  a 
minister  of  the  Gospel.-^  The  facts  I  sorrowfully 
admit ;  but  let  me  ask  my  friend,  Does  he  really 
think  his  implication  a  just  and  fair  one  ?  Over 
against  his  disgraced  minister  I  set  a  drunkard 
reformed  by  the  preaching  of  the  Cross  ;  is  it 
any  less  certain  that  Christ  has  no  responsibility 
for  the  downfall  of  the  one  than  it  is  that  He  is 
wholly  responsible  for  the  uplifting  of  the  other? 
My  friend  speaks  of  his  "  pain,"  in  which  all  good 
men  share,  at  such  sad  spectacles  as  this  that  he 
refers  to,  but  does  he  not  see  that  he  is  practically 
admitting  that  when  professed  Christians  go  astray 
it  is  because  they  do  not  obey  the  teaching  of 
Christ,  that  their  wrongdoing  is  not  because  of, 
but  in  spite  of  their  religious  profession,  and  that 
therefore  no  blame  is  to  be  laid  at  the  door  of 
religion  itself?  Do  let  us  be  reasonable.  You 
do  not  judge  of  a  doctor's  skill  by  his  failure 
to  cure  patients  who  refuse  to  take  his  prescribed 
remedies.  A  captain  has  a  compass  on  board, 
but  he  never  looks  at  it,  and  by  and  by  he  lands 
his  vessel  on  the  rocks.  Is  a  ship's  compass,  there- 
fore, not  a  good  thing  ?  The  Bible  must  be  judged 
not  by  what  it  fails  to  do  for  those  who,  what- 

^  The  reference  was  to  an  unhappy  incident  associated  with  the 
meeting  of  the  Church  Assemblies  in  Edinburgh  in  May  of  last 
year  ;  but  as  nothing  is  to  be  gained  by  repeating  the  facts  here,  I 
omit  them. 

P 


2  I  o  First  Things  First 

ever  they  may  say,  never  consult  it  and  refuse  to 
obey  it,  but  by  what  it  can  do  for  those  who  do. 
And  I  challenge  any  man  to  tell  me  of  one  who 
made  this  book  his  guide  through  life,  and  yet 
ended  at  last  among  the  breakers  ?  You  tell  me 
you  know  a  great  many  so-called  Christians  who  are 
hard,  and  selfish,  and  grasping,  and  narrow  :  so  do 
I  ;  but  that  is  nothing  to  the  point.  The  question 
is,  what  does  Christ  say  about  them  ? 

2.  Another  correspondent  asks  how  it  is 
possible  to  believe  that  wise  and  great  men  who 
lived  and  died  before  Christ  came,  men  like 
Socrates,  e.g.,  are  to  be  consigned  to  everlasting 
destruction.  I  confess  I  do  not  quite  understand 
a  question  like  this.  My  friend  and  I  surely  must 
read  different  Bibles.  I  certainly  do  not  believe 
any  such  horrible  doctrine  as  his  query  suggests  ; 
and,  what  is  much  more  to  the  point,  I  can  find 
nothing  in  my  Bible  that  even  hints  at  it.  He 
says  that  this  is  the  "  teaching  of  preachers  and 
others."  What  preachers  ?  Can  any  man  under 
thirty  call  to  mind  a  single  instance  in  his  own 
experience  of  such  a  doctrine  being  taught  by  the 
accredited  teachers  of  any  Christian  Church  ? 
Has  he  ever  read  anything  of  the  kind  in  any 
book  written  by  Christian  thinker  or  preacher 
during  the  last  fifty  years  ?  I  know  something  of 
the  pulpit  literature  of  recent  years,  but  I  cannot 
recall  a  solitary  example  ;  whereas  in  five  minutes 
I  could  put  my  hand  on  a  score  of  volumes  in 
which  any  such  idea  is   scouted  with  indignation. 


Bible  Difficidties  211 

But,  after  all,  it  is  not  a  question  of  what  preachers 
preach,  but  of  what  the  Bible  says  ?  Astronomers 
may  mislead  us,  but  the  stars  are  always  there  to 
correct  both  them  and  us.  What  then  does  the 
Bible  say  ?  "  The  times  of  ignorance,"  Paul  told 
the  Athenians  in  hisfamous  discourse  on  Mars  Hill, 
"  God  overlooked  ;  but  now  He  commandeth  men 
that  they  should  all  everywhere  repent."  *'  God  is 
no  respecter  of  persons,"  said  Peter,  "  but  in  every 
nation  he  that  feareth  Him,  and  worketh  righteous- 
ness, is  acceptable  to  Him."  Should  not  words  like 
these  banish  forever  any  such  hideous  fear  as  darkens 
my  friend's  imagination  ?  The  teaching  of  Christ 
Himself  is  equally  unmistakable.  What  a  glorious 
breadth  of  promise  is  there  in  words  like  these  : 
"  Other  sheep  I  have  which  are  not  of  this  fold  : 
and  them  also  I  must  bring,  and  they  shall  hear 
My  voice  ;  and  they  shall  become  one  flock,  one 
shepherd  "  ;  or,  in  these  again  :  "  I  say  unto  you, 
that  many  shall  come  from  the  east  and  the  west, 
and  shall  sit  down  with  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and 
Jacob,  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven "  —  Marcus 
Aurelius  will  be  among  these,  wrote  John  Wesley 
in  his  Journals  when  he  had  been  reading  the  wise 
words  of  the  great  Roman  thinker — "  but  the  sons 
of  the  kingdom  shall  be  cast  forth  into  the  outer 
darkness."  This  is  language  unequivocal  enough 
surely.  Can  my  interrogator  quote  one  single  New 
Testament  sentence  that  contradicts  it? 

3.   Another  question  which  lies  before  me  may 
be    answered    in    the    same    way — by    a    simple 


2  I  2  First  Things  First 


statement  of  the  facts.  It  is  astonishing  how 
many  of  these  "  difficulties  "  are  thus  made  to 
vanish  into  thin  air.  I  am  asked — I  suppose  for 
the  thousandth  time — how  the  Bible  comes  to 
speak  of  David  as  "  a  man  after  God's  own  heart," 
when,  according  to  its  own  showing,  he  was  guilty 
of  the  double  crime  of  murder  and  adultery.  From 
the  way  in  which  the  question  is  generally  put,  one 
might  almost  suppose  that  the  favourable  judg- 
ment of  Heaven  followed  immediately  upon  the 
perpetration  of  David's  sin.  What  are  the  actual 
facts?  In  I  Sam.  xiii.  14  we  read  (Samuel  is 
the  speaker)  :  "  The  Lord  had  sought  Him  a  man 
after  His  own  heart,  and  the  Lord  hath  appointed 
him  to  be  prince  over  His  people  "  ;  that  is  to  say, 
David  is  called  a  man  after  God's  own  heart  while 
as  yet  Saul  is  upon  the  throne,  and  he  himself  is 
an  innocent  shepherd  youth  keeping  his  father's 
flock.  When  do  we  read  of  David's  great  trans- 
gression ?  Not  until  we  come  to  2  Sam.  xii.,  or 
nearly  a  lifetime  later  in  the  history.  Samuel 
pronounced  this  remarkable  judgment  on  a  pure, 
high-minded  youth,  who  in  his  old  age,  and  long 
years  after  the  prophet  had  been  in  his  grave,  fell 
into  the  most  grievous  sin.  Where  then  is  the 
difficulty  ?  Moreover,  do  not  let  us  suppose  that 
the  Bible  left  it  to  us  to  condemn  David's  wrong- 
doing. I  have  heard  low-thoughted  men  half 
insinuate  that  the  Old  Testament  had  a  kind  of 
sneaking  sympathy  with  adultery  and  murder. 
What   a    monstrous  iniquity !      Let    a   man    read 


Bible  Diffiatlties  2 1 3 


over  the  first  fourteen  verses  of  2  Sam.  xif.  (in 
which  David's,  condemnation  and  punishment  are 
declared  by  Nathan),  let  him  remember  how  low 
was  the  world's  best  morality  then,  and  he  will  at 
least  learn  a  lesson  of  respect  for  the  Old  Testa- 
ment that  he  is  not  likely  soon  to  forget. 

4.  No  less  than  three  of  my  correspondents 
have  come  to  grief  over  that  old  stone  of  stumbling 
and  rock  of  offence,  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis. 
"  Evolution  "  haunts  them  like  a  spectre.  One  of 
them  refers  to  Professor  Drummond's  recent  lectures 
on  "  The  Ascent  of  Man,"  ^  and  asks  how  they 
are  to  be  squared  with  the  teaching  of  the  Bible. 

Well,  it  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  remind  our- 
selves that  there  are  evolutionists  who  yet  find 
nothing  in  their  scientific  faith  to  disturb  their 
faith  in  Christ.  Take  Professor  Drummond 
himself  His  acceptance  of  evolution  leaves  little 
to  be  desired  from  the  scientist's  point  of  view, 
and  yet  he  is  even  better  known  as  a  teacher  of 
religion  than  as  a  professor  of  science.  Dr. 
Dallinger,  again,  is  at  the  same  time  a  Methodist 
preacher  and  one  of  the  most  eminent  of  living 
microscopists.  This  is  his  confession  of  faith : 
"  Some  men,"  he  says,  "are  deeply  moved  and  endure 
a  mental  anguish  by  the  possibility  declared  by 
modern  science,  that  our  proud  human  race  in 
highest  probability  originated  in  the  monera,  and 
through  the  mollusca  and  the  lower  mammals  pro- 

^  The  reference  was,  I  may  say,  not  to  the  published  volume,  but 
to  the  brief  reports  that  appeared  in  the  Brilish  Weekly. 


2 1 4  First  Things  First 

gressed  upwards  by  great  creative  laws,  operating 
through  unmeasured  forms,  to  a  manhke  form,  a 
body  created  in  this  way,  slowly,  of  the  dust  of  the 
earth.  This  is  not  absolutely  proven,  but  if  ever 
the  day  shall  dawn  that  it  shall  be  so  demonstrated 
to  the  ordinary  mind  that  it  shall  be  irresistible,  it 
would  leave  unruffled  my  mental  peace,  and 
untarnished  my  view  of  the  moral  majesty  of 
man."  ^  Here  then — to  mention  no  more — are 
two  distinguished  thinkers,  each  of  whom  knows 
more  about  both  science  and  religion  than  either  I 
or  my  correspondents,  and  neither  of  whom  finds 
any  difficulty  in  holding  to  both.  Should  not  a  fact 
like  this  at  least  give  us  pause  before  we  rush  to 
the  conclusion  that  science  and  the  Bible  are  in 
hopeless  antagonism  ? 

The  truth  is,  difficulties  of  the  kind  of  which 
the  letters  before  me  speak  arise  from  a  misread- 
ing of  Genesis  i.  It  is  judged  from  a  wrong  stand- 
point. If  this  chapter  is  meant  as  a  strictly 
scientific  reading  of  the  facts  of  creation,  then  I 
admit  frankly  it  is  inaccurate :  the  parallel 
columns  of  the  "  reconcilers  "  I  look  upon  with  the 
eyes  of  a  hardened  sceptic.  But  ought  we  so  to 
regard  it  ?  It  is  a  well-known  canon  of  criticism 
that  to  judge  rightly  of  any  work  you  must  place 
yourself  at  the  point  of  view  of  its  author.  You 
do  not  test  the  value  of,  say,  a  constitutional 
history  of  England  by  the  accuracy  of  its 
geographical  allusions  or  scriptural  quotations.  I 
*  Sermon  on  "  Conscience,"  reported  in  British  Weekly  Pulpit, 


Bible  DiffLciilties  2 1 5 

suppose  everybody  knows  George  MacDonald's 
exquisite  little  poem  "  Baby  " — 

"  Where  did  you  come  from,  baby  dear  ? 
Out  of  the  everywhere  into  here. 

Where  did  you  get  those  eyes  so  blue  ? 
Out  of  the  sky  as  I  came  through. 

Where  did  you  get  that  little  tear? 
I  found  it  waiting  when  I  got  here. 

Where  did  you  get  this  pearly  ear? 
God  spoke,  and  it  came  out  to  hear. 

How  did  they  all  just  come  to  be  you? 
God  thought  about  me,  and  so  I  grew."* 

For  its  purpose  could  anything  be  more  perfect? 
But  what  should  we  think  if,  on  the  one  hand, 
some  dunderheaded  pedant,  concerned  for  Dr.  Mac- 
Donald's  reputation  for  accuracy,  were  gravely  to 
insist  on  taking  it  all  as  serious  science,  or  if,  on  the 
other  hand,  a  governess  who  had  passed  an  examina- 
tion in  Huxley's  Elementary  Lessons  in  Physiology, 
should  really  treat  the  poem  so,  and  on  that  ground 
protest  against  its  admission  into  the  nursery  ?  ^ 
Criticism  that  ignores  the  writer's  point  of  view  is 
worse  than  idle. 

The  same  principle  must  be  kept  in  mind  in 
reading  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis.  Remember 
the  story  of  the  beginning  of  things   may  be  told 

^  Some  only  of  the  verses  are  here  quoted. 

^  This  is  an  illustration  of  Professor  Drummond's,  which  I  read 
some  years  ago  in  tlie  Nineteenth  Century,  about  the  time  of  Glad- 
stone and  Huxley's  famous  duel ;  but  as  I  am  writing  out  of  reach 
of  any  public  library,  I  have  no  means  of  verifying  my  reference. 


2  1 6  First  ThiiiQ-s  First 


cb 


from  two  different  standpoints.  We  know  how 
modern  science  would  tell  it ;  the  grievous  error 
we  make  is  in  supposing  that  this  ancient  chron- 
icler is  vainly  trying  to  accomplish  the  same  task. 
But  surely  his  point  of  view  is  the  point  of  view 
of  the  whole  Bible,  not  scientific  but  religious. 
That  purpose  is  stamped  on  almost  every  verse  of 
the  whole  chapter.-^  It  matters  but  little  to  this 
writer  whether  the  birds  or  fishes  come  first  in 
the  scale  of  creation  ;  it  matters  everything  that 
his  readers  see  behind  and  above  all,  God. 
"  And  God  said  " — let  the  intermediary  stages  be 
as  many  as  they  may,  you  come  to  that  at  last. 
Let  science  take  all  the  a^ons  of  time  it  needs  for 
the  great  creative  processes  it  is  slowly  unravelling 
before  our  eyes  ;  let  it  go  on  adding  link  after  link 
to  the  mighty  chain  of  created  being  ;  sooner  or 
later  the  question  must  be  asked,  "  On  what  shall 
we  hang  the  last  ? "  and  when  that  question  is 
asked,  the  wise  man  and  the  little  child  will  go 
back  together  to  the  Bible  to  read  over  again  the 
old  words  past  which  no  science  ever  takes  us,  so 
simple   and   yet   so   sublime — "  hi    the    beginning, 

Gonr 

II 

Now,  let  me  ask,  suppose  your  difficulties  re- 
main unsolved — what  then  ?  One  of  my  corre- 
spondents says  he  must  sever  his  connection   with 

^  I  specially  commend  in  this  connection  the  first  chapter  of  the 
late  Dr.  S.  Cox's  Miracles :  an  Argument  and  a  Challenge. 


Bible  Difficulties  2 1 7 


Christ's  Church  ;  another  says  he  must  continue  to 
remain  without  it.  It  is  not  necessary  to  do  either. 
Some  time  ago  I  received  a  letter  from  an 
eminent  Biblical  scholar  in  reply  to  a  query  which 
I  had  addressed  to  him.  It  gave  me  the  informa- 
tion I  sought,  but  through  the  indistinctness  of  the 
handwriting  one  sentence  remains  to  this  day 
only  partially  deciphered.  Do  you  suppose  I  threw 
the  letter  into  the  fire  because  of  that  one  obscur- 
ity ?  Some  day,  perhaps,  I  may  clear  it  up  ;  but 
in  the  meantime  I  have  all  I  asked  for  and  all  I 
need.  Is  it  not  possible  to  treat  the  Bible  in  the 
same  way  ?  Granted  that  in  parts  it  is  of  doubt- 
ful meaning,  even  wholly  unintelligible,  are  we 
therefore  to  reject  what  in  it  we  have  found  or 
may  find  to  be  both  true  and  helpful  ?  That  there 
are  parts  difficult  to  be  understood  every  one  will 
frankly  admit.  And  it  is  really  not  of  vital  im- 
portance what  opinion  we  form  with  regard  to 
them.  The  fact  is,  we  are  all  in  danger  of  at- 
taching wholly  unreal  values  to  the  opinions  we 
hold  on  certain  questions  associated  with  the  Bible. 
Do  you  really  think,  e.g.,  that  it  is  a  matter  of 
supreme  concern  to  the  Almighty  which  particular 
interpretation  out  of  the  many  that  have  been  sug- 
gested you  choose  to  put  upon  the  first  chapter  of 
Genesis  ?  But,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  mis- 
taking the  great  Gospel  which  the  Bible  exists  to 
proclaim.  If  you  come  to  it  for  science  or  history, 
you  will  soon  be  asking  more  questions  than  it 
can  answer ;  but  if  you  want  to  know  how  to  live 


2 1 8  First  Things  First 

a  clean,  sweet,  pure  life,  it  will  tell  you  in  language 
which  he  that  runs  may  read. 

"  Then  is  the  Bible  an  infallible  book  ?  "  But 
what  sort  of  infallibility  do  you  want — a  little 
peddling  infallibility  that  dots  all  its  i's  and  crosses 
all  its  t's,  and  makes  up  its  figures  correctly,  the 
infallibility  of  the  gazetteer  and  the  ready  reckoner 
— is  that  what  you  want?  Then  you  do  not  need 
to  come  to  the  Bible  for  it.  But  if  what  you  want 
is  moral  infallibility,  a  guide  who  will  stand  at  the 
cross-roads  of  life  and  say  to  the  bewildered  pil- 
grim, "  This  is  the  way,  walk  ye  in  it,"  here  is 
one  who  never  sent  a  traveller  on  the  wrong  track 
yet.  That  is  the  Scripture's  claim  for  itself:  it  is 
"  profitable  for  teaching,  for  reproof,  for  correction, 
for  instruction  which  is  in  righteousness."  About 
any  other  kind  of  infallibility  it  is  silent. 

"  But,"  argues  some  one,  "  if  we  cannot  be  sure 
of  the  one  how  can  we  be  of  the  other  ? "  The 
answer  is  simple — try  for  yourselves  and  see.  But 
can  there  be  any  possible  doubt  as  to  the  rightness 
and  goodness  of  that  life  which  the  Bible  offers  us 
and  to  which  it  calls  us?  There  are  some 
remarkable  admissions  in  these  letters  :  one  writer 
says  he  has  no  doubts  about  Christ ;  another  is 
quite  satisfied  that  the  world  has  not  and  never 
had  any  teaching  worthy  to  be  compared  with  His  ; 
while  a  third  who  murmurs  at  the  shortcomings 
of  religious  professors  says  that  many  are  "  far  from 
what  a  Christian  ought  to  be."  How  much  is 
involved  in  that  last  phrase  !      For,  tell   me,  why 


Bible  Dijjicttlties  2 1 9 

"  ought "  a  Christian  to  be  so  different  from  the 
rest  of  people  ?  Why  do  you  expect  from  him 
what  you  never  expect  from  others  ?  Do  you  not 
see  that  language  like  this  pays  unconscious  homage 
to  the  loftiness  and  greatness  of  the  moral  ideal 
which  is  set  up  by  Christ?  Then  why  not  let 
Genesis  alone  and  begin  there  ?  Whatever  else  is 
uncertain,  it  must  be  right  to  follow  Christ. 

Scores  of  young  men  begin  to  read  their  Bible 
at  the  wrong  place.  The  first  thing  to  settle  is 
not  the  interpretation  of  the  early  chapters  of 
Genesis,  but  our  relation  to  Jesus  Christ.  Never 
mind  how  sin  came  into  the  world  ;  it  is  here — the 
Bible  did  not  make  it — and  it  is  doing  the  devil's 
work  in  our  lives.  Christ  assures  us  He  can  put 
right  what  is  wrong.  The  testimony  of  multitudes, 
living  and  dead,  confirms  what  He  declares.  Why, 
in  God's  name,  why  will  we  deny  ourselves  the 
good  that  Christ  offers  us,  because,  forsooth,  there 
are  things  in  Genesis  we  do  not  understand  ? 

I  do  not  mean  that  these  questions  are  of  no 
importance,  that  it  matters  not  how  we  think  about 
them.  But  what  I  do  want  to  urge  upon  you 
is — do  not  for  their  sake  postpone  what  is  of  far 
greater  moment.  Let  it  be  first  things  first.  And 
these  certainly  are  not  among  the  first  things  ;  they 
can  afford  to  wait.  But  that  which  cannot  afford  to 
wait,  that  which  has  waited  too  long  already,  is  your 
decision  to  yield  yourself  to  Christ  as  His  servant. 
Delay  no  longer,  I  beseech  you,  but  this  moment 
answer  to  His  call  and  follow  in  His  footsteps. 


THE  WORSHIP   OF  THE   HIGHEST 


"  Take  heed  to  thyself  that  thou  offer  not  thy  Imi'nt  offerings  in 
every  place  that  thou  seest :  but  in  the  place  which  the  Lord  shall 
choose  in  one  of  thy  tribes,  there  thoti  shall  offer  thy  burnt  offerings, 
and  there  thou  shall  do  all  that  I  cotmnand  thee.'' — Dei/t.  xii. 
13,  H- 


XV 

THE  WORSHIP   OF  THE   HIGHEST 

I  SUPPOSE  that  is  a  text  on  which  modern 
Old  Testament  criticism  could  readily  preach 
to  us  a  long  and  learned  sermon.  Yet  most  of 
you  would  probably  not  care  to  listen  to  it  ; 
certainly  I  am  not  the  man  to  preach  it.  For- 
tunately for  both  of  us  it  is  not  necessary.  We 
may  learn  the  deeper,  larger  lessons  that  lie 
beneath  the  letter  of  Scripture,  even  though  we 
have  no  power  (and  therefore  no  right)  to  judge 
of  the  difficult  and  delicate  questions  raised  by 
literary  and  historical  criticism. 

To  whatever  period  of  the  history  of  the  people 
of  Israel  this  command  may  belong,  its  meaning 
is  obvious  enough.  Local  sanctuaries,  so  liable 
to  abuse,  were  to  be  abolished  :  "  Take  heed  to 
thyself  that  thou  offer  not  thy  burnt  offerings  in 
every  place  that  thou  seest."  And  in  their  place 
the  one  central  sanctuary  was  to  be  established  : 
"  In  the  place  which  the  Lord  shall  choose,  there 
thou  shalt  offer  thy  burnt  offerings." 


2  24  First  Things  First 

But  what  is  all  this  to  us  ?  What  sort  of 
connection  is  there  between  our  life  to-day  and 
this  antiquated  law  of  sacrifice?  What  have  we 
to  do  with  sanctuaries  local  and  sanctuaries 
central — we  who  have  learned  that  "  God  is  a 
Spirit ;  and  they  that  worship  Him  must  worship 
Him  in  spirit  and  in  truth "  ?  I  turn  for  my 
answer  to  that  remarkable  writer  whose  abiding 
worth  the  reading  world  is  slowly  beginning  to 
recognise,  Mark  Rutherford.  It  was  from  this 
text  that  Zachariah  Coleman  heard  old  Mr.  Brad- 
shaw  preach  in  the  Pike  Street  Chapel  in  the  story 
of  "  The  Revolution  in  Tanner's  Lane."  "  What 
a  word  it  is  ! "  said  the  preacher.  "  You  and  I 
are  not  idolaters,  and  there  is  no  danger  of  our 
being  so.  For  you  and  me  this  is  not  a  warning 
against  idolatry.  What  is  it  for  us  then  ?  Reserve 
yourself;  discriminate  in  your  worship.  .  .  .  In 
the  place  ivhich  the  Lord  shall  choose,  that  is  to  say, 
keep  your  worship  for  the  Highest.  Do  not 
squander  yourself,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  before 
the  shrine  of  the  Lord  offer  all  your  love  and 
adoration." 

Here,  then,  is  the  principle  that  I  wish  to 
illustrate  and  to  enforce.  Every  wayside  has  its 
altar,  its  eager  priests,  its  worshipping  crowds  : 
"  take  heed  to  thyself  that  thou  offer  not  thy 
burnt  offerings  in  every  place  that  thou  seest." 
Make  your  worship  worthy  of  yourself  Do  not 
waste  yourself  on  trifles.  When  you  give  of  your 
best,  let  it  be  for  the  sake  of  the  best. 


The  Worship  of  the  Highest         225 

Seek,  I  say,  after  the  best  things.  And  I  will 
have  no  niggard's  interpretation  of  the  phrase. 
"  All  things  are  yours  "  ;  no  man  shall  narrow  for 
me  the  magnificent  breadth  of  that  great  saying, 
"  Whatsoever  things  are  lovely  and  of  good  report, 
think  on  these  things."  The  joys  of  physical 
and  intellectual  discipline,  the  delights  of  travel,  of 
music,  of  painting,  of  books, — they  are  all  part  of 
the  great  Christian  heritage ;  take  them  to  sweeten 
and  gladden  your  lives.  "All  these  things," — meat 
and  drink  and  clothing, — said  Jesus," shall  be  added 
unto  you."  And  surely  He  who  withholdeth  not 
these  things  will  freely  grant  unto  us  those  greater 
gifts  which  minister  to  our  higher  and  spiritual  life? 

Yes,  the  commandment  is  exceeding  broad;  but, 
mark,  it  is  a  commandment,  and  it  is  at  our  peril 
that  we  disregard  it.  The  penalty  of  disobedience 
is  writ  large  in  many  a  man's  life.  Here  is  a 
familiar  picture  :  a  man  who,  somehow  or  other, 
has  always  come  short  of  what  has  been  rightly 
looked  for  from  him.  His  life  all  through  has 
been  one  long  unfulfilled  prophecy.  There  is  no 
kind  of  proportion  in  him  between  power  and 
performance.  He  has  been  busy  carving  cherry- 
stones when  he  might  have  been  moving  mountains. 
It  is  as  if  a  steam-hammer  should  be  used  to 
crack  nuts.  Not  that  he  is  a  bad  man.  His 
life  is  not  nasty  or  corrupt.  We  do  not  want  to 
call  down  fire  from  heaven  to  consume  him.  Yet 
all  his  life  has  been  a  mistake,  a  colossal  blunder, 
and  when    the  end  comes,  man  as  well  as  God 

Q 


2  26  First  Things  First 

will  write  his  epitaph,  "  Thou  fool  ! "  What  is 
the  explanation  ?  He  has  failed  to  discriminate. 
He  has  squandered  himself  on  trifles.  "  The 
straws,  the  small  sticks,  and  the  dust  of  the  floor," 
— he  has  lived  among  these,  till  the  muckrake  is 
more  to  him  than  the  crown.  True,  he  may 
never  have  bowed  the  knee  to  the  god  of  unclean - 
ness,  or  violated  one  of  the  common  decencies  of 
life,  but  the  accent  of  life  all  through  has  been 
on  the  wrong  things,  "  the  unnecessary  things," 
as  Marcus  Aurelius  calls  them.  He  has  wor- 
shipped at  any  chance  altar,  not  at  the  place 
which  the  Lord  did  choose. 

The  general  principle  is  now,  I  think,  quite 
clear.  Let  us  lay  it  alongside  our  life  and  apply 
it  at  one  or  two  points. 

I.  Take  the  question  of  reading.  And  here 
the  application  of  our  principle  means  this — read 
the  best  books.  There  are  few  important  matters 
about  which  we  are  so  careless  as  the  choice  of 
our  books.  Many  of  us  have  but  a  very  little 
time  that  can  be  given  to  reading,  at  most,  per- 
haps, a  few  hours  a  week,  and  yet  the  most  trivial 
circumstance  is  often  enough  to  determine  which 
books  we  shall  read  :  we  read  a  book  because  it 
is  new,  or  because  the  title  catches  our  fancy,  or 
because  the  newspapers  have  been  talking  about 
it,  or  perhaps  because  somebody  offered  to  lend 
it  to  us.  We  boast  that  we  are  "  the  heirs  of 
all  the  ages,"  and  then  we  turn  to  the  waste-paper 
basket  of  literature,  or  to  the  "troughs  of  Zolaism." 


The  VVors/iip  of  the  Highest         227 


A  great  writer  used  to  say  she  did  not  want  the 
broth  of  literature  when  she  could  have  the  soup. 
What  have  you  to  do  with  Rider  Haggards  or 
Miss  Braddons  when  you  don't  know  your  Walter 
Scott  or  George  Eliot  ?  Let  the  Heavenly  Twms 
and  the  Yelloiv  Asters  wait  till  you  know  Old 
Mortality  by  heart,  till  you  have  laughed  and 
cried  over  Silas  Marner.  Do  not  let  the  literature 
of  the  hour  crowd  out  the  literature  of  the  ages. 
"Take  heed  to  thyself  .  .  ."  But,  says  some 
one,  is  it  not  very  largely  a  matter  of  taste? 
Undoubtedly  ;  but  in  this,  as  in  other  things, 
taste  can  be  cultivated  or  it  can  be  ruined  ;  and 
you  have  only  to  feed  long  enough  on  the  highly- 
seasoned  garbage  that  some  writers  of  the  day 
are  serving  up  under  the  name  of  literature  to 
destroy  for  ever  your  appetite  for  what  is  healthy 
and  good. 

2.  Turn  to  another  and  most  important 
subject  —  amusements.  And  the  question  just 
now  is  not  so  much  what  forms  of  amusements 
are  admissible  and  what  are  inadmissible  ;  rather 
it  is,  What  place  ought  amusement  to  have  in 
our  life  ?  It  is  here  that  the  "  discrimination  "  of 
which  I  have  spoken  is  so  sorely  needed  to-day 
That  amusement  has  a  place  in  every  young 
man's  life  I  shall  not  stay  to  prove,  because  I  do 
not  suppose  any  one  seriously  questions  it.  But 
when  you  ask  "  What  place  ? "  you  raise  one  of 
the  knottiest  practical  problems  that  any  of  us 
has   to  solve.      I  am  not  so  foolish  as  to  suppose 


2  28  First  Things  First 


that  I  can  settle  the  question  in  a  sentence,  but 
this  word  let  me  say — it  is  not  here  that  the 
emphasis  of  life  must  lie. 

Athletics  are  a  good  thing,  but  if  to  you  they 
are  becoming  the  supreme  thing,  then  for  you 
they  are  no  longer  good,  but  bad  and  dangerous. 
Love  of  sport  in  every  young  life  is  natural  and 
healthy  ;  but  if  your  love  of  sport  means  that 
your  life  is  being  turned  into  a  huge  playground, 
wherein  the  chief  end  of  man  is  to  make  records 
and  to  break  them,  if  to  you  all  the  world's  a 
football-field,  and  all  the  men  and  women  merely 
"  players,"  then  your  love  of  sport  is  a  passion  which 
you  cherish  at  the  peril  of  your  own  undoing.  I 
do  not  want  to  "  scream  "  nor  to  exaggerate  ;  I 
am  ready  to  go  farther  than  most,  perhaps,  on 
the  side  of  toleration  ;  no  young  man  loves  his 
favourite  game  more  keenly  than  I  do  mine  ;  but 
I  say  deliberately — and  remember  I  am  not 
speaking  on  behalf  of  a  "  set  of  young  square- 
toes,  who  wear  long -fingered  black  gloves  and 
talk  with  a  snuffle,"  but  in  the  name  of  young 
men  who  believe  that  life  was  meant  for  something 
more  serious  than  the  kicking  of  a  football,  or 
the  riding  of  a  cycle,  and  I  say — that  the  wild, 
feverish,  all-absorbing  excitement,  sometimes  well- 
nigh  bordering  on  madness,  which  during  the 
football  season  in  some  parts  of  our  country  is 
paralysing  all  the  higher  activities  of  tens  of 
thousands  of  young  men,  is  fast  making  of  a 
once    innocent    pastime   an    evil    that    will    have 


The  Worship  of  the  Highest  229 

to  be  shunned  like  opium -smoking  or  dram- 
drinking. 

Recreation  has  its  place  ;  take  care  that  it  gets 
no  more  than  its  place.  Never  must  it  become 
the  ruling  passion.  Let  us  keep  it  at  our  feet, 
our  servant  but  never  our  master,  and  it  will  bless 
us  ;  on  the  throne,  it  will  spread  mental  and  moral 
anarchy  through  all  our  life.  Recreation  is  like 
medicine.  Take  it  in  right  measure  and  it  is  a 
good  tonic ;  take  too  much  and  it  becomes  a 
poison.  But  if  you  ask  me  how  much  you  may 
safely  take,  I  cannot  tell  you.  Different  people 
require  different  doses.  It  is  a  case  of  every  man 
his  own  doctor.  You  must  watch  yourself  and 
keep  your  finger  on  your  own  pulse,  and  ask  your- 
self how  much  of  this  is  good  for  you,  and  settle 
it  on  that  ground  in  God's  sight. 

3.  I  take  one  other  application  of  the  principle 
we  are  considering,  viz.  to  the  pursuit  of  wealth. 
And  here,  perhaps,  the  main  element  in  the  problem 
is  not  wholly  dissimilar  from  that  we  have  just 
been  discussing.  The  pursuit  of  wealth,  like  the 
pursuit  of  pleasure,  must  have  its  place  in  every 
man's  life.  Christianity  preaches  no  impossible 
doctrine  of  absolute  indifference  to  the  things  of 
the  life  that  now  is.  Always  be  suspicious  of  any 
representations  of  religion  that  make  it  visionary, 
unreal,  unworkable.  I  certainly  will  not  repeat  the 
wild  and  foolish  things  that  have  sometimes  been 
said  against  the  possession  of  wealth.  I  would 
rather  quote   Mr.   Barrie's   beautiful   words :   "  Let 


230  First  Things  First 

us  no  longer  cheat  our  consciences  by  talking  of 
filthy  lucre.  Money  may  be  always  a  beautiful 
thing.      It  is  we  who  make  it  grimy." 

No  ;  we  are  not  wrong  in  giving  to  wealth  its 
place  in  our  life  ;  we  are  wrong,  utterly  wrong, 
when  that  place  is  the  first  place.  The  mistake 
lies,  not  in  caring  for  it,  but  in  caring  for  it 
supremely.  To  make  haste  to  be  rich  is  a  tempta- 
tion the  most  seductive  and  pitiless  this  genera- 
tion knows.  All  around  us  noble  natures  are 
being  smitten  down  every  day,  blighted  and 
withered  by  "  the  narrowing  lust  of  gold."  What 
is  the  terrible  gambling  mania  of  our  time  but  just 
one  of  the  "  foolish  and  hurtful  lusts  "  into  which 
men  fall  who  zvill  be  rich  ?  "  The  ground  of  a 
certain  rich  man  brought  forth  plentifully  " — and 
after  that  he  could  think  about  nothing  but  barns. 
Are  you  that  man  ?  Hold  a  copper  coin  near 
enough  to  your  eye  and  it  will  shut  out  the  whole 
heavens  from  your  vision.  Is  that  what  you  are 
doing?  Take  heed,  my  brother,  as  George 
Herbert  says, — 

"Lest  gaining  gain  on  thee,  and  make  thee  dim 
To  all  things  else.     Wealth  is  the  devil's  conjurer, 
Whom,  when  he  thinks  he  hath,  the  devil  hath  him. 
Gold  thou  mayest  safely  touch  :  but  if  it  stick 
Unto  thy  hands,  it  vvoundeth  to  the  quick." 

Not  here,  at  the  altar  of  Mammon,  is  the  place 
which  the  Lord  hath  chosen  ;  not  here  must  thy 
worship  be  offered. 


The  Worship  of  the  Highest 


If  we  do  not  obey  this  Divine  law,  what  ? 
If  we  neglect  it,  not  in  these  things  that  I  have 
named  only,  but  habitually,  systematically,  what 
will  the  consequence  be  ?  What  will  the  conse- 
quence be  ? — ah  !  how  we  shirk  that  question  ! 
How  we  refuse  to  answer  it,  refuse  even  to  ask  it  ! 
We  think  much  of  to-day,  little  of  to-morrow,  and 
nothing  at  all  of  the  day  after.  We  will  not  look 
at  life  whole.  We  must  have  the  present  pleasure  ; 
the  palate  must  be  tickled  now  ;  and  so  the  mess 
of  pottage  buys  the  birthright,  because  the  one  can 
be  had  to-day  and  the  other  must  be  waited  for. 
^'  At  the  last  .  .  .  .' "  says  the  warning  voice  ;  but 
we  will  not  heed,  we  do  not  care.  The  cup  is 
sweet  to  the  taste  now  ;  sufficient  unto  the  day 
is  the  enjoyment  thereof;  to-morrow  may  take 
thought  for  the  things  of  itself.  There  is  nothing 
that  some  of  us  need  so  much  as  to  pull  ourselves 
up  sharp,  and  with  both  eyes  fixed  on  our  life,  to 
ask.  What  is  to  be  the  end  of  all  this  ? 

Therefore  I  ask.  What  will  be  the  consequence  ot 
neglecting  this  Divine  law?  Let  us  turn  to  Mark 
Rutherford  again  for  the  answer  :  "  You  will  not 
be  struck  dead,  nor  excommunicated,  you  will  be 
simply  disappointed.  Your  burnt  offering  will 
receive  no  answer  ;  you  will  not  be  blessed 
through  it ;  you  will  come  to  see  that  you  have 
been  pouring  forth  your  treasure,  and  something 
worse,  your  heart's  blood — not  the  blood  of  cattle 
— before  that  which  is  no  God,  a  nothing,  in  fact 
*  Vanity  of  vanities,'  you  will  cry,  '  all  is  vanity.'  " 


232  First  Things  First 

You  remember  that  saying  of  the  Apostle  John, 
"  Love  not  the  world,  neither  the  things  that  are 
in  the  world."  Then  he  tells  us  why  we  should 
not  love  the  world.  He  does  not  say  it  is  bad, 
but  simply  "  it  passeth  away  "  ;  it  is  going  ;  it  will 
not  last.^  But  surely  man's  true  wisdom  is  to  see 
that  his  life  is  rooted  in  the  things  which,  like 
himself,  will  abide.  You,  my  brother,  what  are 
you  living  for  ?  Is  it  for  the  things  that  will  last, 
or  for  the  things  that  are  passing  away  ? 

What  are  the  things  that  abide  ?  "  Whether 
there  be  prophecies,  they  shall  fail  ;  whether  there 
be  tongues,  they  shall  cease  ;  whether  there  be 
knowledge,  it  shall  vanish  away."  Then  is  all 
going  ?  Will  nothing  last  ?  Listen.  "  Love 
never  faileth."  Love,  goodness,  character — these 
are  the  things  that  abide  for  ever.  "Believest 
thou  this  ?  "  In  a  day  like  ours,  when  men  speak 
of  the  religion  of  art,  or  science,  or  literature,  it  is 
not  easy  always  to  remember — nay,  it  is  very  easy 
to  forget — that  after  all  these  are  not  the  supreme 
things.  Some  of  you  who  listen  to  me  now  ^  are 
just  entering  with  me  on  another — the  seventh — 
year  of  my  ministry  in  your  midst.  The  years 
that  lie  behind  us  have  brought  to  us  all  more 
than  once  we  dare  ever  have  hoped  ;  and  yet  for 
myself,  at  least,  I  would  write  failure,  ay,  and 
something  worse  than  failure,  across  them  all, 
did   I  not   believe  that  they  had   taught,  at  least 

*  See  Professor  Drummond's  Greatest  Thing  iti  the  World. 
2  August  1894. 


The  Worship  of  the  Highest         233 

to  some  of  us,  that  there  is  a  something  outside 
and  beyond  the  dazzling  glories  of  our  modern 
life  which  is  great  not  only  as  they  are  great,  but 
great  with  a  greatness  all  its  own, — I  mean, 
goodness. 

That  is  as  far  as  this  Old  Testament  law  will 
carry  us.  Yet  I  cannot  stop  there.  I  am  not  a 
preacher  of  morality  only,  but  a  preacher  of  the 
Christian  Gospel.  If  we  say  that  the  emphasis  of 
our  life  must  be  on  righteousness,  goodness,  to 
what  does  that  lead  us  ?  Goodness  for  us  means 
Christlikeness  ;  the  one  is  an  abstraction,  the  other 
its  concrete  expression.  To  be  like  Christ  is  our 
definition  of  being  good  ;  for  we  do  not  know,  and 
the  world  does  not  know,  any  goodness  like  His. 

And  so  we  are  back  once  more  at  the  old,  all- 
important  question,  How  shall  I  make  that  good- 
ness mine  ?  How  can  I,  the  sinful  man,  grow  like 
the  sinless  Christ  ? 

Mr.  Matthew  Arnold,  in  his  delightful  essay  on 
Marcus  Aurelius,  writes  of  the  great  Roman 
moralist  in  terms  of  the  loftiest  admiration.  He 
calls  him  "  perhaps  the  most  beautiful  figure  in 
history,"  "  the  unique,  the  incomparable  Marcus 
Aurelius."  And  yet  he  is  bound  to  confess  that 
his  moral  precepts  are  not  for  the  "  ordinary  man." 
It  is  impossible,  he  says,  to  rise  from  the  study  of 
them  "  without  feeling  that  the  burden  laid  upon 
man  is  well-nigh  greater  than  he  can  bear."  "  The 
word    ineffectual    rises    to    one's    mind  ;     Marcus 


234  First  Tilings  First 

Aurelius  saved  his  own  soul  by  his  righteousness, 
and  he  could  do  no  more."  And  yet,  surely,  this 
is  just  what  is  demanded  of  ethical  systems,  that 
they  be  practicable,  workable.  Herein  lies  the 
glory  of  Christianity — its  high  ideals  are  possible. 
You  can  be  what  Christ  bids  you  be,  shows  you 
you  ought  to  be.  There  is  not  only  high  morality 
here,  there  is  moral  dynamic  to  make  the  morality 
operative. 

The  secret  of  it  all  is  our  relation  to  Jesus 
Christ.  That  which  among  the  early  Christians 
made  likeness  to  Christ  first  a  possibility  and 
afterwards  a  fact  was  their  personal  devotion  to 
Him.  It  is  not  enough  that  we  admire  and 
reverence  Him.  That  may  carry  us  a  little  way  : 
it  can  never  carry  us  all  the  way  ;  it  can  never 
make  us  truly  Christians.  Oh !  let  us  follow 
Him,  let  us  bow  to  Him,  let  us  trust  in  Him  with 
all  our  hearts,  and  He  will  make  all  good  things 
to  live  and  grow  in  us. 


A   SAVED   SOUL  AND   A  LOST   LIFE 


''And  he  said,  Jesus,  remember  j?ie  when  thoti  earnest  in  thy 
kingdom.  And  He  said  tinto  him.  Verily  I  say  unto  thee.  To-day  shalt 
thou  he  with  Me  in  Paradise'' — Luke  xxiii.  42,  43. 


XVI 

A  SAVED  SOUL  AND  A  LOST  LIFE 

THIS  beautiful  incident  in  the  story  of  our 
Lord's  Death  and  Passion  is  familiar  to  us 
all.  It  is  needless  to  spend  one  moment  in 
painting  again  a  picture  every  detail  of  which 
we  already  know  so  well. 

The  story  brings  to  us  a  twofold  message.  I 
see  in  it  the  beckoning  finger  of  encouragement  ; 
I  see  in  it  also  the  uplifted  finger  of  warning. 
Christ  is  able  and  willing  to  save  all  ;  and  if 
only  we  are  willing,  we  are  not  too  bad  and  it  is 
never  too  late.  Death's  icy  finger  was  already  on 
this  man's  heart — another  moment  and  it  would 
be  still  for  ever  ;  but  the  nailed  hands  of  Christ 
snatched  his  soul  from  the  very  mouth  of  hell.^ 
There  is  the  encouragement.  The  penitent  robber 
was  saved,  yet  "  so  as  by  fire "  ;  behind  lay  his 
life  a  blackened,  smoking  waste.  There  is  the 
warning.  His  soul  was  saved  but  his  life  was 
lost ;  Christ  seeks  to  save  both  our  soul  and  our 

*  See  Bishop  Hall's  Contemplations, 


238  First  Things  First 

life.  Let  us  look  at  these  two  points  in  turn  for 
a  moment. 

I.  The  Encouragement. — Exactly  what  this 
penitent  robber  knew  of  Christ  we*  do  not  know  ; 
at  most  it  could  be  but  little.  It  is  true  he  calls 
Him  "  Lord,"  and  speaks  of  His  "  kingdom." 
There  is  something,  too,  almost  sublime  in  the 
faith  which  at  that  moment,  when  on  the  one  side 
there  stood  a  world  leering,  scoffing,  hateful,  and 
on  the  other  but  a  lone,  unfriended  Man,  could  yet 
choose  with  Him,  and  cry,  "  This  Man  hath  done 
nothing  amiss."  He  saw  the  Lord  in  the  Victim, 
the  kingdom  beyond  the  Cross.  Still,  when  all  is 
said,  his  thoughts  of  Christ  must  have  been  very 
inadequate,  very  unworthy.  And  yet,  though  he 
knew  not  even  what  he  said,  and  though  his 
prayer  dropped  from  lips  already  white  with  death, 
Christ  heard  and  saved  him  :  "  To-day  shalt  thou 
be  with  Me  in  Paradise." 

To  all  God  offers  to  forgive  the  sin  of  the  past 
and  to  give  strength  for  the  future  ;  and  He  offers 
to  do  it  now.  Is  there  any  thought  of  Him  in 
your  hearts  that  will  not  let  you  believe  that  ? 
Again  and  again  have  I  talked  with  men  and 
women — even  young  men  and  women — who  had 
brooded  over  this  black  thought  till  it  had  driven 
them  well-nigh  to  despair:  "I  am  too  bad — I 
have  sinned  too  deeply — I  have  gone  too  far — 
God's  mercy  is  not  for  me."  Is  there  any  one 
listening  to  me  now  who  feels  like  that  ?  Then 
may  God  help    me  to    bring   to  you   a  word    of 


A  Saved  Soul  and  a  Lost  Life        239 

hope.  "  Late,  late,  so  late  " — yes,  but  if  only  we 
will  it  is  not  "  too  late."  There  is  a  popular 
hymn  in  many  of  our  hymn-books  called  "  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  passeth  by."  I  can  sing  it  all  except 
the  last  verse  ;  when  we  get  to  that  I  am  always 
silent — 

"But  if  you  still  His  call  refuse. 
And  all  His  wondrous  love  abuse, 
Soon  will  He  sadly  from  you  turn, 
Your  bitter  prayer  for  pardon  spurn  : 
*  Too  late  !  too  late  ! '  will  be  the  cry — 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  has  passed  by  /  " 

I  cannot  sing  that.  Christ  never  spurns  a  true 
cry  for  pardon.  If  He  did  that  He  would  no 
longer  be  the  Christ  I  know  and  preach.  The 
only  unpardoned  ones  at  the  last  will  be  those 
who  do  not  ask  for  pardon,  who  do  not  want  it, 
who  will  not  have  it.  "  The  only  unpardonable 
sin  is  the  sin  of  refusing  the  pardon  that  avails 
for  all  sin."  ^  "  T/iis  is  the  condemnation,  that  light 
is  come  into  the  world,  and  men  loved  darkness 
rather  than  light,  because  their  deeds  were  evil." 
But  if  we  turn  to  the  light,  and  welcome  it,  then 
are  we  condemned  no  longer.  "  Your  bitter  prayer 
for  pardon  spurn  "  ?  No  ;  what  I  fear  is  not  lest 
a  day  should  come  when  Christ  will  be  deaf,  but 
a  day  when  you  will  be  dumb ;  not  that  He  will 
say  "  No  "  to  your  prayer,  but  that  you  will  not 
care  to  pray.  I  tremble  when  I  think  what 
strange  work  sin  may  work  in  a  man's  heart  ;   but 

^  Dr.  Maclaren. 


240  First  Things  First 

God's  mercy  I  never  doubt  ;  it  "  endureth  for 
ever  "  ;  it  will  hold  out  while  yet  there  is  a  single 
prodigal  ready  to  cry,  "  I  will  arise  and  go  to  my 
Father." 

This  is  the  first  truth  I  wish  to  emphasize  ; 
and  in  order  the  better  to  do  so,  let  me  examine 
briefly  two  or  three  passages  of  Scripture  which 
men  and  women  have  often  wrested  to  their  own 
hurt ;  for  still,  as  Margaret  Elginbrod,  in  George 
MacDonald's  beautiful  story,  says,  "  We  turn  God's 
words  against  Himself." 

Take,  first,  the  oft-quoted  passage  from  the 
book  of  Genesis :  "  My  spirit  shall  not  always 
strive  with  man."  -^  Who  has  not  heard  this  used 
as  an  authority  for  the  statement  that  a  time 
comes  when  God  withdraws  His  Spirit  from  men's 
hearts  and  ceases  to  seek  to  win  them  to  Himself? 
What  are  the  real  facts  ?  First,  "  My  spirit "  does 
not  and  cannot  mean  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  Third 
Person  in  the  Trinity  ;  ^  secondly,  "  strive "  is  a 
complete  mistranslation  ;  ^  and,  thirdly,  the  whole 
passage,  however  we  translate  it,  has  absolutely 
nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  subject  under 
^  vi.  3. 

2  **  It  is  not  the  Holy  Spirit  and  His  office  of  chastisement  which 
is  here  meant,  but,  the  object  of  the  resolution  being  the  destruction 
or  shortening  of  physical  life,  the  breath  of  life  by  which  men  are 
animated  (ii.  7),  and  which,  by  reason  of  its  Divine  origin  and  kin- 
ship with  the  Divine  nature,  or  even  as  merely  a  Divine  gift,  is 
called  *  my  spirit '  by  God  "  (Delitzsch). 

^  *' Act  in  "  (Delitzsch),  "rule  in"  (R.V.  marg.) 


A  Saved  Soul  and  a  Lost  Life        241 


discussion.  The  probable  meaning  is,  as  Dr. 
Dods  expresses  it,  "  Tlie  vital  principle  communi- 
cated to  man  by  God  (ii.  7)  shall  not  animate 
him  for  ever,  for  he  also  (like  the  other  creatures) 
is  flesh  "  ;  "  yet,"  so  continues  the  narrative,  "  shall 
his  days  be  a  hundred  and  twenty  years."  Any 
one  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  read  the  passage 
for  himself  as  it  stands  in  the  context  will  realise  in 
a  moment  the  utter  impossibility  of  the  popular 
rendering. 

Another  passage  sometimes  quoted  in  a  similar 
connection  is  this  :  "  Ephraim  is  joined  to  his 
idols  ;  let  him  alone  "  ^ — meaning  he  is  past  hope, 
it  is  useless  to  attempt  anything  more,  there- 
fore "let  him  alone."  But  is  it  so  certain  that 
this  is  the  true  interpretation  of  the  passage? 
"  Ephraim "  stands  here  for  Northern  Israel. 
Hosea  is  addressing  himself  to  the  people  of 
Judah,  and  he  warns  them  against  the  idolatry 
into  which  their  countrymen  in  the  north  have 
fallen.  "  Ephraim  is  joined  to  his  idols  ;  let  him 
alone  "  ;  i.e.  be  not  a  partaker  with  him  in  his  evil- 
doings  ;  "  come  ye  out  from  among  them  and  be 
ye  separate."  The  words,  then,  are  a  call  to 
separation  addressed  to  Judah,  rather  than  a 
judgment  of  doom  pronounced  against  Israel.'^ 

1  Hos.  iv.  17. 

2  This  interpretation  is  defended,  among  modern  expositors,  by 
a  scholar  at  once  so  orthodox  and  so  able  as  Dr.  Maclarcn.  "  There 
are  no  people,"  he  adds,  "about  whom  God  says  that  they  are  so 
wedded  to  their  sins  that  it  is  useless  to  try  to  do  anything  with 
them." 

K 


242  First  Things  First 

But  much  more  perplexing  than  either  of  these 
is  the  hard  saying  of  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews  concerning  Esau  :  "  For  ye  know  " 
(I  quote  from  the  A.V.)  "how  that  afterward, 
when  he  would  have  inherited  the  blessing,  he  was 
rejected  :  for  he  found  no  place  of  repentance, 
though  he  sought  it  carefully  with  tears."  ^ 
Readers  of  John  Bunyan's  Grace  Abounding  will 
remember  how  his  soul  was  tortured  by  doubts 
born  of  these  dark,  mysterious  words  ;  and  not  a 
few  perhaps  since  then  have  passed  through  a  like 
experience.  And  no  wonder  ;  for  here  in  God's 
own  Book  are  words  that  seem  to  say  to  us  that  a 
man  may  seek  to  repent,  seek  earnestly  and  with 
tears,  and  yet  be  rejected.  Is  it  really  so  ?  Let 
us  see.  The  grammatical  construction  of  this  verse 
is  a  little  difficult.  In  all  probability,  when  the 
writer  says  "  he  sought  it  diligently  with  tears," 
the  "  it "  does  not  refer  (as  in  the  A.V.  it  seems 
to  do)  to  the  "  place  of  repentance,"  but  to  the 
"  blessing."  That  is  the  view  adopted  by  the 
Revisers,  who  have  placed  the  sentence  "  for  he 
found  no  place  of  repentance  "  within  parentheses, 
the  result  being  to  draw  into  closer  connection  the 
first  and  last  clauses  of  the  verse.  So  that  what 
this  passage  tells  us  is  really  this  :  Esau  despised 
and  sold  his  birthright,  afterwards  desiring  to 
inherit  the  blessing  he  sought  it  diligently  and 
with  tears,  but  was  rejected.  What,  then,  is  the 
meaning  of  the  parenthetical  clause  "  he  found  no 


A  Saved  So  id  and  a  Lost  Life        243 

place  of  repentance  "  ?  It  is  in  that  word  repent- 
ance that  the  whole  difficulty  lies.  Repent,  in 
the  high,  religious  sense  of  turning  away  from  sin 
to  God,  Esau  certainly  did  not ;  at  least  there  is 
no  mention  of  any  such  repentance  in  the  Old 
Testament  narrative,  which  must  be  our  chiei 
guide  in  the  interpretation  of  these  words.  But 
repentance  of  another  and  lower  kind  was  mani- 
fested by  him.  There  was  deep  and  bitter  regret 
at  his  past  folly  ;  there  was  a  real  change  of  view 
with  regard  to  the  value  of  what  he  had  lost,  and 
there  was  an  earnest  desire  to  get  it  back  again. 
And  it  is  that  change  of  mind,  that  repentance,  of 
which  the  writer  of  this  Epistle  was  thinking  when 
he  said  that  Esau  "  found  no  place  of  repentance"; 
that  is  to  say,  as  one  expositor  has  put  it,  "  He 
found  no  field  in  which  such  repentance  as  he  had 
could  operate  so  as  to  undo  what  was  past."  Once 
the  blessing  might  have  been  his,  but  he  despised 
it ;  now  it  has  passed  to  another.  Esau  may 
weep  and  wring  his  hands  in  the  bitterness  of 
his  despair, — it  is  too  late,  the  opportunity  has 
gone  for  ever,  and  there  is  no  place  for  repentance 
now.  I  do  not  know  whether  I  have  made  my 
explanation  clear  ;  but  at  the  risk  of  repeating  my- 
self, let  me  say  again  these  words  do  not  teach  that 
a  man  may  earnestly  desire  to  turn  away  from  his 
sin  and  seek  after  God,  and  yet  be  unable  to  do 
so.  No  such  thought  was  in  the  writer's  mind  ;  it 
is  not  to  be  found  in  the  Old  Testament  narrative 
on  which  he  was  commenting  ;  and   there  is  not  a 


244  First  Things  First 

vestige  of  any  such  doctrine  in  the  whole  Bible. 
What  they  do  teach  is  this — and  it  is  a  truth 
sufficiently  solemn  and  awful  without  magnifying 
into  wholly  unscriptural  proportions — that  if,  like 
Esau,  a  man  lets  slip  in  early  life  the  blessings 
God  puts  within  his  reach,  he  must  not  expect 
they  will  all  come  flocking  back  again  the  moment 
he  finds  out  how  he  has  played  the  fool  and  erred 
exceedingly.^ 

One  other  passage  and  I  pass  on.  In  the 
Book  of  Proverbs  we  read  :  "  Because  I  have 
called,  and  ye  refused  ;  I  have  stretched  out  my 
hand,  and  no  man  regarded  ;  but  ye  have  set  at 
nought  all  my  counsel,  and  would  none  of  my 
reproof:  I  also  will  laugh  in  the  day  of  your 
calamity  ;  I  will  mock  when  your  fear  cometh  ; 
when  your  fear  cometh  as  a  storm,  and  your 
calamity  cometh  on  as  a  whirlwind  ;  when  distress 
and  anguish  come  upon  you.  Then  shall  they 
call  upon  me,  but  I  will  not  answer  ;  they  shall 
seek  me  diligently,  but  they  shall  not  find  me."  ^ 
These  terrible  words  have  been  put,  not  infre- 
quently, into  the  lips  of  Jesus  ;  and  because  men 
have  thought  that  He  says,  "  They  shall  call 
upon  me,  but  I  will  not  answer  ;  they  shall  seek 
me  diligently,  but   they  shall   not  find   me,"  their 

^  Once  more  I  have  to  acknowledge  my  indebtedness  to  Dr. 
Maclaren.  The  brief  exposition  attempted  above  is  in  the  main 
borrowed  from  a  sermon  of  his  which  I  read  years  ago.  How 
closely  I  have  followed  him  I  cannot  now  say ;  the  sermon  has 
never,  so  far  as  I  know,  been  reprinted. 

2  i.  24-28. 


A  Saved  Soul  and  a  Lost  Life        245 


hearts  have  been  filled  with  anguish  and  despair. 
A  well-known  minister  (Dr.  Monro  Gibson),  in  an 
article  on  this  passage  in  one  of  our  theological 
monthlies,!  mentions  a  very  distressing  case  which 
had  come  under  his  own  observation.  An  earnest 
Christian  lady  was  visiting  in  one  of  our  infirmaries. 
She  found  there  an  old  man,  broken-hearted 
because  of  sin,  and  anxiously  seeking  salvation. 
She  told  him  of  Jesus,  the  crucified  One,  who  died 
that  we  might  live.  But  he  met  her  at  every 
point  with  the  one  reply — the  Gospel  was  not  for 
him,  his  day  of  grace  was  past.  When  she  quoted 
New  Testament  words  of  promise,  he  answered 
her  with  these  words  from  the  Book  of  Proverbs. 
Because  Christ  had  once  called  and  he  had  refused, 
now,  said  he,  He  will  laugh  at  my  calamity.  He 
will  be  deaf  to  my  prayer. 

I  have  not  time  to  deal  with  this  passage  as 
fully  as  I  could  wish.  But  this  let  me  say  :  these 
words  are  not  the  words  of  Christ  ;  the  Book  of 
Proverbs  does  not  so  much  as  hint  that  they  are 
His  in  any  sense  ;  there  is  not  even  the  shadow 
of  a  reason  for  putting  them  into  His  lips.  They 
are  the  words  of  Wisdom,  and  so  understood  need 
no  apology,  for  they  present  no  difficulty.  But 
who  has  a  right  to  assume  that  Wisdom  and  Christ 
are  one  ?  Because  to  the  late  seeker  Wisdom 
wears  upon  her  brow  a  stern,  forbidding  look,  does 
Christ  therefore  greet  him  with  no  gracious  word 
of  welcome  ?     That  some  of  the  sayings  of  Wisdom 

1  Expositor ^  3rd  Series,  vol.  viii.  p.  193. 


246  First  Things  First 

may  be  fittingly  put  into  His  lips  is  nothing  to 
the  point.  So  may  many  of  the  Psalms  :  do  we 
therefore  make  Him  the  spokesman  of  those 
terrible  imprecations  in  which  some  of  the  Psalm- 
ists breathe  out  vengeance  against  their  enemies  ? 
No,  no  ;  I  tell  you  plainly,  if  I  believed  that  God 
could  ever  laugh  at  my  calamity,  and  mock  the 
prayer  that  the  consciousness  of  sin  had  wrung 
from  a  broken  heart ;  if  I  thought  that  my  cry  for 
forgiveness  could  ever  be  met  by  Him  with  hard 
and  stony  indifference,  I  would  shut  to  my  Bible 
and  never  preach  again.  If  that  be  God,  there  i? 
no  glad  tidings  of  great  joy  for  the  world.  But, 
blessed  be  His  name,  He  has  given  to  us  a  better 
Gospel  than  that.  Drunkard  and  harlot,  chiefest 
of  sinners,  vilest  of  the  sinful  race — let  them  all 
hear  the  great  message  of  universal  love.  All  His 
life  Christ  preached  it ;  at  the  eleventh  hour  He 
saved  the  penitent  robber  ;  He  put  the  trumpet  to 
His  lips,  and  shouted  as  with  His  dying  breath 
His  great  evangel,  "  Whosoever  will,  let  him  come." 
Yes  ;  though  "  this  cursed  hand  were  thicker  than 
itself  with  brother's  blood,"  there  is  "  rain  enough 
in  the  sweet  heavens  to  wash  it  white  as  snow." 
"  I  would,"  says  Christ,  and  if  He  does  not,  there 
is  only  one  reason,  and  it  is  not  in  Him,  "  ye  would 
not."  Now,  now,  though  it  be  the  eleventh  hour, 
though  the  candle  of  life  have  burnt  to  the' 
socket,  though  you  have  nothing  to  offer  God  but 
the  fragments  that  remain  from  a  misspent  life, 
yet  even  now  if  you  will  He  will    receive  you, 


A  Saved  Soul  and  a  Lost  Life        247 


and   whatsoever  of    good    His   love  can   bring  to 
sinful  men  He  will  give  to  you. 

2.  We  turn  from  the  encouragement  to  the 
zvarning.  "  One  was  saved  upon  the  cross,"  says 
an  old  divine,  "  that  none  might  despair  ;  and  only 
one  that  none  might  presume."  But  it  is  not  of 
the  folly  of  what  we  call  "  death-bed  repentances  " 
that  I  want  to  speak  ;  we  did  not  need  this  narra- 
tive to  teach  us  that,  surely.  Its  warning  rather 
lies  in  this  :  the  robber's  soul  was  saved,  but  his 
life  zvas  lost.  But  God  seeks  to  save  not  only  our 
soul,  but  our  life — our  days,  our  years,  our 
strength  for  service.  No  one  will  think  I  am 
speaking  lightly  of  the  infinite  blessing  bestowed  on 
that  dying  robber,  but — I  say  it  with  all  reverence 
— Christ  can  do  better  for  a  man  than  that.  It  is 
that  better  thing  I  desire  for  you  young  men. 
There  is  a  touching  little  poem  by  Dora  Greenwell,^ 
suggested  by  the  inscription  on  a  tombstone  in  a 
country  churchyard  in  Wales,  which  tells  how  he 
who  lies  below  passed  away  at  the  age  of  eighty, 
and  yet — referring  to  the  date  of  his  conversion  to 
Christ — was  only  "  four  years  old  when  he  died  " — 

"  If  you  ask  me  how  long  I  have  lived  in  the  world,  I'm  old, 

I'm  very  old  ; 
If  you  ask  me  how  many  years  I've  lived,  it'll  very  soon  be 

told, 
Past  eighty  years  of  age,  yet  only  four  years  old." 

^  '*  A  Good  Confession." 


248  First  Things  First 


How  long  are  you  going  to  be  in  the  world 
before  you  begin  to  live  ?  I  want  to  tell  you  why 
you  should  come  to  Christ  now. 

It  will  save  you  from  vain  and  bitter  regrets  in 
after  life.  You  know  what  a  "  palimpsest "  is. 
In  early  days,  before  the  invention  of  printing, 
when  books  were  both  scarce  and  dear,  a  scribe  who 
wished  to  make  a  copy  of  some  writing  would,  not 
unfrequently,  for  the  sake  of  economy,  take  a 
piece  of  parchment  that  had  been  already  used  ; 
then  when,  as  far  as  possible,  the  old  writing  had 
been  erased,  on  the  surface  thus  newly  prepared 
he  would  begin  his  transcribing.  But  sometimes 
in  the  course  of  years,  the  work  of  erasure  not 
having  been  done  completely,  the  first  writing 
would  gradually  reappear,  with  the  curious  result  of 
a  double  inscription  on  the  one  sheet  of  parchment. 
Such  a  MS.  is  called  a  palimpsest.^  Is  not  that  a 
picture  of  some  men's  lives  ?  To  my  mind  there 
is  nothing  in  Paul's  letters  so  sad  as  the  oft- 
repeated  references  to  the  terrible  mistakes  of  his 
early  life.  Conversion  cleansed  the  sheet,  and  we 
might  have  thought  the  past  was  blotted  out  for 
ever  ;  and  yet  even  when  the  end  is  almost  in 
view,  and  Paul  the  Apostle  has  become  "  Paul  the 
aged,"  he  can  still  see  the  big,  ugly  words  beneath 
the  newer,  fairer  writing  of  his  life — "  blasphemer^ 
perseattor,  injurious!'  Is  ther^  anything  so  sad  as 
the  bittei"  memories  of  a  good  man  ?  There  are 
white-headed    Christian    men    and     women    who 

^  Some  of  tlie  Bible  MSS.  are  of  this  character. 


A  Saved  Soul  and  a  Lost  Life        249 

would  give  their  right  hand — all  they  have  indeed 
— to  stand  again  where  some  of  you  do.  Oh  ! 
let  us  be  wise  in  time.  God  can  and  will  take 
back  His  penitent  prodigal  child,  and  give  to 
him  all  that  a  Father's  loving  heart  can  bestow, 
but  God  cannot  and  God  does  not  chase  away  the 
memories  of  the  sinful  past  that  tramp  through  the 
chambers  of  the  mind.  If  you  want  no  bitter 
thoughts  of  the  far-off  country  with  its  riotous 
living  and  husks  of  the  swine-trough,  take  care 
you  do  not  wander  from  the  Father's  home. 

And,  further,  I  want  you  to  come  to  Christ 
now,  because,  coming  to  Him,  you  will  be  saved 
for  earnest  service.  "  Repent  ye,  for — "  any 
reason  you  like  ;  any  motive  that  really  brings  you 
to  Christ  is  a  good  one  ;  but  the  Baptist's  plea  is 
perhaps  still  the  best ;  certainly  it  has  lost  none  of 
its  urgency  to-day — "  repent  jQ^for  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  at  hand!'  New  fields  await  the  worker, 
new  doors  stand  open  on  every  side,  a  thousand 
voices  summon  us  to  that  service  of  God  which  is 
the  service  of  man.  And  I  have  no  greater 
quarrel  with  sin  than  this,  that  it  unfits  men  for 
this  high  service.  We  pity  the  unhappy  cripple 
left  behind  in  the  race  of  life.  But  our  churches 
are  full  of  such — men  and  women  repentant  and 
forgiven  indeed  ;  but  not  for  them  the  difficult 
task,  not  for  them  the  high  endeavour  ;  they  must 
go  softly  all  their  days.  Just  as  a  man  dragged 
from  the  revolving  wheels  of  some  machinery  may 
lose  one  of  his  limbs  and  yet  may  escape  with  his 


250  First  Things  First 


life,  so  some  are  snatched  from  utter  spiritual 
destruction  ;  but  maimed  and  crippled  for  time, 
perhaps  for  eternity,  they  can  never  again  be  all 
that  once  they  might  have  been.  In  some  church- 
yard in  Germany  two  tombstones  stand  side  by 
side  ;  on  the  one  it  is  written  Vergehen  "Forgiven," 
on  the  other  Vergebens  "In  vain."  If  I  had  to 
write  an  epitaph  for  some,  I  think  I  would  write 
both  Vergeben  and   Vergebens. 

My  brother,  will  you  win  nothing  better  for 
yourself  than  that?  I  appeal  to  your  sense  of 
honour.  Play  the  man.  If  you  honestly  believe 
that  religion  is  good  for  nothing,  that  it  can  do 
nothing  for  you  and  help  you  to  do  nothing  for 
others,  say  so,  and  at  least  we  shall  know  what  we 
are  about.  If  you  never  intend  to  be  a  Christian, 
admit  it,  and  mad  as  I  shall  think  your  decision 
there  will  at  least  be  some  show  of  consistency  in 
your  conduct.  But  you  intend  nothing  of  the 
sort ;  you  believe  there  is  very  much  in  religion  ; 
you  fully  purpose  to  be  some  day  among  the ' 
followers  of  Christ.  Then  is  it  just,  is  it  honour- 
able, is  it  manly,  to  treat  this  question  as  some  of 
you  are  treating  it  ?  Is  there  any  other  concern 
in  life  to  which  you  present  the  same  dallying, 
hesitating  front  you  do  to  this  ?  Has  it  come  to 
this,  that  every  other  creditor  is  to  get  twenty 
shillings  in  the  pound,  and  God  is  to  be  put  off 
with  the  sorriest  pittance  ?  Is  there  to  be  enough 
and  to  spare  for  every  other  guest,  and  for  Him 
only  the  crumbs  that  fall  from  the  table,  the  mere 


A  Saved  Soul  and  a  Los  I  Life        25] 


scrapings  of  the  barrel  ?  God  asks  your  life  while 
the  bloom  is  on  it ;  will  you  wait  to  give  it  Him 
till  it  is  a  poor,  withered,  shrivelled  thing  ?  He 
seeks  you  in  your  youth,  in  the  very  heyday  of 
your  life  and  vigour  :  will  you  seek  Him  only 
when,  bankrupt  of  days  and  strength,  you  are 
scarce  able  to  crawl  back  to  His  feet  ?  "  Are  you 
afraid  to  die  ?  "  said  a  sick-visitor  to  a  man  as  he 
lay  on  his  death-bed.  "  No,"  said  the  dying  man, 
"I  am  not  afraid;  I  am  ashamed  to  die:  God 
has  done  so  much  for  me,  and  I  have  done  nothing 
for  Him."  Christ  seeks  your  soul ;  He  seeks 
your  life  :   will  you  give  Him  both  ? 


THE  END 


DATE  DUE 

mmmm^^i^ 

^'  ""■■"-*«^ 

)MV 

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1 

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